Flicker: You and Me
by Phenax
Summary: Sequel to Flicker. With Darcy still missing, Kol is desperate. He will go to whatever lengths necessary to bring home the woman he loves safely, and Darcy, desperate to protect herself, will go to whatever lengths necessary to stay hidden from everyone. Kol/OC
1. 00: Danger

"Waiting here for someone.  
Only yesterday we were on the run.  
You smile back at me, and your face lit up the sun.  
Now I'm waiting here for someone.

And oh, love, do you feel this rough?  
Why's it only you I'm thinking of?

My shadow's dancing  
Without you for the first time.  
My heart is hoping  
You'll walk right in tonight.  
Tell me there are things that you regret,  
Cause if I'm being honest I ain't over you yet.  
That's all I'm asking.  
Is it too much to ask?"

 _Too Much to Ask_ : Niall Horan

* * *

 ** _Darcy,_**

 ** _As I sit here and write this letter, feeling beyond lame since this seems more like something my brother would do instead of myself, I can't help but think about everything that has happened here since you left._**

Kol leaned back away from the desk he found himself at, leaving the tenth or eleventh draft he had started for Darcy lying on the table. Of course he knew that some day she would be back, but the lack of knowledge of _when_ was getting to him, more than it should've been.

He had lived for a thousand years, spent countless days with more women than the entire state of Virginia had for a population, he was certain, but something about this one particular woman, about the single month that he had spent in her company, both physically and emotionally, had a hold on him that was unlike anything he had seen, even through his siblings. Elijah and Rebekah had loved over the centuries, and of course Finn had Sage, even to this day, but something about his love for Darcy was different, incomparable in many ways.

 ** _I tried to save Elena, my darling. You must know that._**

Kol grip on the pen in his hands tightened, so much that physically forcing his hand to write became impossible. The pen began to snap under the pressure, and Kol released it, hoping to spare the fourth pen he had retrieved for the various letters he had tried to write out for her.

Just the thought of what happened, because his sister couldn't let go of her anger, made Kol's blood boil. He knew that he shouldn't expect Rebekah to just drop what had happened to her, and maybe there was a time where he wouldn't have been able to let such horrible things go either. Elena _had_ stabbed her in the back, after all.

She couldn't just spare her for her own brother. Her hatred for Nik and Elena grew too wild, and one night, when Elena came to the Mikaelson place to threaten Kol once again—it had become a regular occurrence after the ball, and it felt like she ripped off pieces of his heart each time—it all came out to boil, in a bloody way.

Kol didn't pay Elena's threats any mind, not once they were in possession of all of the white oak stakes that could be used to kill them. To ensure that their mother couldn't come back again, the same way she had the time before, Klaus had turned Bonnie's mother into a vampire, ensuring that their mother no longer had a mother-daughter Bennett connection on the side of the living to fuel her own life force.

They had destroyed all of the stakes, so only the daggers and ash remained as a way to neutralize them, aside from the power of magic alone. Since only Kol knew where the daggers were, things were safe, for all of them. They didn't have to fear their brother's wrath, more than a few hours of misery inflicted on them from a werewolf bite—he had done that to Rebekah after she tried to kill Elena.

Kol's mind was somewhere else when he had come downstairs that night, though he heard Elena's voice downstairs. His mind was coming up with all sorts of ideas, new ways to find Darcy that they hadn't tried yet. Bonnie eventually agreed to help with a locator spell, after Kol spent _days_ convincing her that he didn't want to hurt Darcy, but it hadn't mattered. Somehow, she had managed to cloak herself to where they couldn't find her with any kind of locator spell that Bonnie knew.

Elena's eyes were like the darkest fires of hell, burning through Kol and reflecting off the shining floors beneath their feet. Kol almost smiled at her, though he had decided long ago that smiling was distasteful. He normally would've smirked and flaunted arrogance, but when it came to Darcy, there was nothing to be arrogant about; he absolutely loved her, and for whatever reason, the angel loved him as well, beyond just who he was and how he looked.

"Elena, haven't you grown tired of cursing my name and empty threats of my death?" he asked instead, his eyes finding her own dark ones to hold her gaze. "I know I'm tired of it all. It isn't getting us anywhere."

In an instant, Rebekah stood behind Elena with one arm twisted behind her back, and her normally bright eyes resembled that of a demon, her smile just as wicked.

"I'm with my brother on this one," she spat in her ear. "I'm sick of your stupid, pointless threats that show nothing but the idiocy you possess! Does your idiotic, self-centered brain really make you believe for one moment that my brother would've bothered with you or your stupid sister—"

"That's enough, Rebekah!" Kol exclaimed, cutting her off before her hatred for Elena could spill over onto the woman he loved very dearly.

Rebekah scoffed. "I'm sorry, Kol, but I have a hard time understanding how this could be anything more than fun and games for the doppelgänger I actually liked for once. Where is she? Why did she just disappear? Why didn't she tell anyone the truth?"

"I don't know, but she wouldn't lie to me!"

Elena's eyebrows furrowed. "She didn't . . . she didn't lie to you, Kol. She lied to all of us."

"She didn't want to," he assured her, and his anger faded, just a bit, as he looked to the twin sister of the woman he loved, the spitting image of every other doppelgänger Kol knew. "She hated it, but she was scared."

"She . . . told me in her note."

"She told you?" Rebekah asked. "Then why have you been over here bothering us every day since she left? You're dumber than I thought, Elena, and frankly, I'm sick of your existence here on this earth."

Kol didn't get a chance to react before he heard the sound of tearing flesh, as if a blade had cut through both fabric, flesh, and muscles alike. He didn't see a knife, but Rebeakh _did_ have her arm twisted behind Elena's back. He had been so distracted with the painful thoughts of Darcy, with defending her honor, that he forgot to see what it was Rebekah was doing.

Elena fell to the ground, her eyes wide, and she had one hand behind her back, an attempt to hold onto the wound it seemed. Kol noticed the place on her lower back where Rebekah had stabbed her, but Rebekah didn't stick around to be yelled at by Kol. She disappeared, leaving Elena to bleed out on the floor.

Kol rushed across the room and bit down onto his wrist, not giving himself a single moment to hesitate. This was Elena, the most important person in Darcy's life, and if he let her die while Darcy was away, he couldn't imagine how she might react. Forget that she would probably hate him; she would be utterly devastated, might even go so far as to blame herself in some sort of twisted way.

Elena, despite the pain in her back from the knife that Rebekah had shoved through her, just stayed where she was on the ground and stared up at Kol, doing all that she could to hide her pain. They both just stood there, uncomfortably staring at one another, until the wound on Kol's wrist healed back up.

"Damn it, Elena, Darcy will be back eventually, and I don't want her to come back and find you dead!"

He bit down on his wrist again, but something about what he said snapped Elena out of her angry haze. She took his wrist much quicker this time, getting just enough of his blood into her system to heal the wound on her back and make her good as new.

 ** _I had no idea what was going to happen to her on the way home, or I would've escorted her home safely myself. I'm so sorry, love. Maybe I should've been more careful, but I suppose I can't blame myself for everything, can I?_**

It had been a horrible day the following day, when Kol was physically ripped from his mostly sleepless night of bittersweet dreams by Klaus, who threw his brother's sleeping body into the floor to rip him from sleep the fastest way possible.

"Where is she?!"

Kol struggled to even function on the amount of sleep he had been getting lately, and he had no idea what time it was. Without Darcy around, he had stopped going to school, so he usually slept until he decided to stop trying to get more sleep.

Whatever Klaus was pissed about made this morning different, and Kol was just as pissed, or at least he thoughts so.

"I swear to God, Nik, if you're asking me where Darcy is, I will find a way to kill you myself."

Kol heard a growl building in his brother's chest. "How can you not know?! How does someone just disappear like that? She can't hide from us! We're Original vampires! We've been around for a thousand years, and some doppelgänger wench who hasn't been around more than eighteen manages to outsmart all of us?!"

Kol found the strength to stand up, and he grabbed his brother by the shoulders, slamming him into the wall beside him to glare right into his eyes, to demand his attention in a way that even Klaus had no choice but to submit to.

"Watch your tongue! You may not see much of her, but I do! I don't know where Darcy is, but she's smarter than you will ever understand! Do you even understand all the things she's kept from you? She's not just some eighteen year old girl; she was meant to survive and last an eternity, and damn it, Nik, I will find her!"

"You can't turn her," he growled. "I need blood for my hybrids."

Kol snorted. "Isn't that what Elena's for to you?"

"Elena died last night—with your blood in her system."

 ** _She was hit by a drunk driver, in the middle of everything supernatural. The human scum of the world was what took her out this time, or just some idiot who didn't think about the consequences of their actions. In most situations, you would've lost your twin sister, the only blood relative you had left, but this is the supernatural world, so she died with my blood in her system._**

 ** _At least your friends are done trying to kill me now; oh that's right. You weren't here when Bonnie discovered the secret my mother had tried to keep hidden, in her plans to kill us all. When an Original vampire dies, everyone who was turned from their blood dies with them, and everyone turned from that vampire's blood dies, so on and on._**

 ** _She's adjusting well, for what it's worth. Before sitting down to write this letter, I tried to go see her, but the Salvatores wouldn't let me through the door._**

 ** _I should probably tell you about what I did to Damon, but I suppose that would be better to talk about when you're back, in person. I've tried to apologize, but I don't think he actually believes it_ _—_ _could be because I don't fully believe it myself._**

There was a knock on Kol's door suddenly, ripping him away from the letter he was writing. Finn had left town with Sage not long after Kol killed their mother, and Klaus had made it a point to walk into Kol's room without knocking, as he didn't trust Kol right now. With Kol taking away his power over his siblings, Kol's "betrayal" of falling in love with the last living doppelgänger, Klaus didn't allow him the privilege of privacy.

Kol opened his door to reveal Elijah, with his hair freshly cut and parted to the side, his dark eyes wide with fear and concern. His jaw was set, his brows furrowed, and Kol knew in an instant that something was going wrong.

"There's someone downstairs I believe you need to speak with."

Kol didn't say anything, only followed behind Elijah, and the two descended the spiral staircase, into the grand entrance room downstairs. Kol hadn't been paying much attention, as his thoughts were clouded with fear of the unknown ahead of him. Something told him that Darcy wasn't dead, that the locator spells weren't working for some unknown reason, but for Elijah to be afraid . . . what was he about to find out?

The blonde woman standing just inside the doorway next to Klaus, who looked just as furious as he had since the day they learned Elena had become a vampire, had a rounded face with eyes set on her goal, unwavering and almost dark. That didn't ease Kol's fears in the slightest; he didn't recognize her at all, and she seemed less than friendly.

"Tell my idiot little brother what you told the rest of us," Klaus spoke up, when an awkward silence fell upon the rest of the room. Rebekah stood silently in the doorway, her eyes drifting down to the floor beneath them, so her expression was lost to Kol, at least for the moment.

"Something is happening," she said, with a flatness to her voice that struck a chord inside of Kol. Most times, he might've been afraid, but even if this woman wasn't a witch, he wasn't afraid of her. "Something you will all want to protect because it could be your salvation or your downfall."

"I'm not really in the mood for riddles," Kol said, his eyebrows rising as he looked right into the empty eyes of this woman. "Can you just get to the point please?"

"You need to find the doppelgänger," she said, and everything inside of Kol set off in a very familiar way. It was almost daily that someone mentioned finding Darcy, as if Kol hadn't been spending almost every waking moment trying to do that very thing, and he was absolutely sick of it. "If you don't, your mother will find another way to come back and kill her."

"Is she really that hellbent on tormenting us all?" Klaus snorted. "I know she views my hybrids as abominations—"

"Would you stop making it all about you?" Rebekah cut him off, before Kol got the chance to do so. "If she's going after Darcy, that's obviously a personal hit to _Kol_."

Kol shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. "I thought that for a long time, but it isn't about any of us. Before I killed our mother again, she said that we had to find Darcy, that something was a threat to our family and the world with Darcy somehow tied to all of it."

"You can go now," Klaus said to the witch, who Kol had honestly forgotten was even still there. "We appreciate the warning, and we'll make sure to find her. Trust me; we want her alive more than anyone."

The woman, who was surely a witch with all that she knew, looked between the four siblings in the room, her blank expression unwavering, and gave each of them a courteous nod before turning and heading out of the house, closing the door behind her and disappearing from sight, back out of their lives.

Everyone paused their conversation until the distinct sound of a car engine sounded, long enough for the car to be out of the driveway, and then, it was as if there had been no pause at all.

"I've been trying to come up with some sort of explanation to that," Elijah agreed. "I've failed. What could Darcy possibly be doing that would threaten not only us but the world? If she's nothing else, she's kind hearted. She wouldn't want to hurt anyone."

"She goes out of her way to not kill _anyone_ , including vampires," Rebekah agreed. "What could be going on that could be our downfall or salvation? This is making less sense."

Klaus' eyebrows rose. "I think it's time we joined our brother in his search for the woman he loves. We need to bring her back and get answers from her ourselves."

Kol, as he was the one standing with his face turned towards the door, was the first to notice the figure standing in the doorway now. Elena hadn't showed up at the Mikaelson place since the night she had died, but she was here now, with fear twisting her usually impassive expression—at least any time she looked at one of the Mikaelsons.

Kol rushed over to open the door, his eyebrows knit together. "I tried to stop by, see how you were doing."

"I heard." She folded her arms over her chest. "I need to talk to you— _alone_."

"You're delusional if you think for one second that we're going to trust the woman who has been spewing death threat after death threat out towards our brother," Rebekah snapped.

Elena glared back at her, the corners of her eyes tightening. "Thanks to you, I'm a vampire who came from his bloodline. Killing him would kill me, and I'd rather not die until I'm sure that my sister is home safe."

"If this is about Darcy, we're all in on finding her," Elijah spoke up, in an attempt to ease the tension between the two females in the room.

Elena shook her head. "This is . . . personal. It is about Darcy, and maybe, if Kol wants to, he can tell you himself, but I'm talking to Kol, or I'm walking away."

Kol didn't even hesitate to step outside, into the bright afternoon, and take off down the stairs, as fast as he could without disappearing from sight. He wanted to run vamp speed away, but he also wanted to stay close enough to Elena for her to tell him where to go.

"My house?" she suggested.

It hadn't been more than three hours since Kol attempted to get inside of the Gilbert home, and actually getting himself inside would've been far too easy. He didn't want to force anything, however. Darcy invited him in, but she wasn't around. His welcome didn't linger without her.

They made it to the Gilbert house in less than five minutes, but it wasn't as empty as Kol had hoped. Bonnie, Jeremy, and Damon all stood just inside the doorway, giving him different variations of glares throughout their expressions. Bonnie's was the softest, as she had seen more attempts to find Darcy than any of them even knew. Kol showed up almost daily at one point, to pointless try and do a locator spell again. He found all sorts of grimoires and gave them to Bonnie, any that had any kind of locator spell within them.

None of them had worked, but Bonnie saw that he did, at least, want her found and safe, just like the rest of them.

Elena wasted no time, however. She didn't even let Kol appreciate the fact that he _could_ still get inside of the Gilbert home, meaning Darcy was still alive. Elena had been the one to invite him inside initially, but Darcy, being her usual adorable self one night, had sweetly purred for him to come in, to see what surprise she had for him upstairs.

Kol remembered that day fondly, the surprise being bourbon and a new piece of lingerie she had bought just for him, but Elena's insistence to get right to the point didn't allow him time to linger on the thought—he was admittedly okay with that, as it might lead him to Darcy faster, to the chance to make even more memories with her.

"What was my sister to you?" Elena asked. "Some fun you could have until Klaus found you?"

"No," Kol said, but he was tired of trying to defend his love for Darcy. He tried not to be angry about the fact that she hadn't told them since he missed her so damn much, but it would've made his life so much easier if she had, with both her family and his.

Her expression didn't change from the flat indifference she was trying to portray, and she kept her chin raised. "Then what?"

"This may be hard for you to understand, Elena, but everything that happened with Darcy was real," he said, using all the patience he had gathered within himself to try and speak calmly with her. "I love her."

"You honestly expect us to believe that?" Damon demanded.

"Give me a reason I have to lie to you!" he exclaimed. "You can't kill me; Elena is from my bloodline. You're not keeping me hidden from Nik; he knows I'm here at this moment, and he's known I'm fucking in love with her! She knew who I was from the beginning! She pulled the bloody dagger out of my chest herself! I don't know why she didn't tell you the truth, but I'm telling you the truth now. Everything I experienced with Darcy was the most real thing I've ever felt in my entire existence on this earth, and I can't even begin to explain this to any of you right now. I've been alive a thousand years, and within a month, I've fallen in love, which I've _never_ done, to be clear. I've given myself the most vulnerable weakness there is, so please, Damon, tell me that I'm wrong. Tell me that I don't love her, and give me a reason I have to lie to you anymore."

Elena didn't give Damon the chance to answer, as she seemed entirely convinced. "Okay, then listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. Darcy left town for a reason."

"I assumed as much, but _why_?" Kol asked, his anger dissipating into fear, which was much worse to Kol. "Was it because of me?"

"No—well, yes, and no," Elena sighed. "She left because she was pregnant, and before you get any ideas, it was as real for her as it was you, Kol. The baby isn't anyone else's."

Darcy had made Kol feel breathless on more than one occasion, and this feeling he suddenly felt, with what Elena was saying . . . he tried to make sense of it, but a thousand years of life and experience told him that it wasn't real. Vampires had never, to any point, been able to have children, and it didn't suddenly change because he loved Darcy so much.

Yet their mother said that . . . she was bringing something into the world that was going to destroy it.

"It's not . . . it's not possible," Kol tried to say, but everything going on was fighting the experience of a thousand years. It made sense, fit in so many ways that he struggled to deny the accuracy of it.

"Maybe it is," Bonnie disagreed. "You know her magic is different."

Kol nodded, his eyebrows furrowed. "Yes."

"We think that the kind of magic she uses may have somehow made you able to have kids, like maybe she siphoned just enough out of you that you were, for a time, mortal," Bonnie attempted to explain, though she seemed to struggle with the idea herself.

Kol shook his head. "That's impossible."

"Explain her pregnancy then, _without_ saying she slept with someone else, because I know that she didn't," Elena insisted.

"I-I-I can't."

"Exactly." Elena took a deep breath and began rubbing her hand over her forehead, to attempt to calm herself down. "We've never seen this kind of magic before, Kol. We have no idea what it is or how it works, but I think she's pregnant with your kid."

Suddenly, the room seemed much smaller, the oxygen in the air becoming something worthless to him, something he couldn't breathe. "Where is she? We must find her."

"That's the problem," Jeremy said, and he took a deep breath as well. "We don't know. You and Bonnie have been doing locator spells, but she wasn't hiding anything from you. It really isn't working."

Kol's eyebrows furrowed, and his anger was coming back. "You don't know?!"

"We don't know," Elena agreed. "She left me a note explaining that she was pregnant, and she was scared of Klaus finding out. She mentioned something about your mom as well. She didn't tell me where she was going, only said that she was going to protect her baby."

Kol took a few large breaths to attempt to calm himself down, though they didn't help as much as he had hoped. "Do you need our help to find her?"

Elena nodded. "As quickly as we can because I don't think we're the only ones who know this child is yours."

"What makes you think that?" Kol asked, saying each word carefully, as if one wrong word might set off the room.

Bonnie sighed. "I've been having these reoccurring dreams, dreams about someone chasing Darcy, chanting, _'Death to the Mikaelsons.'_ "

"That . . . no," Kol said, and he shook his head. "Just before Elena got to our home, a woman was there and told us to find your sister, claiming that we needed to find the last living doppelgänger because she was in possession of something that could be our salvation or our downfall, and she mentioned that our mother was going to come back to kill her."

"We have to find her!" Jeremy exclaimed. "She's strong, but she can't fight against an army of witches who want to kill her!"

"Don't underestimate her, kid," Damon disagreed. "She's an anomaly to nature in her own right."

"That doesn't mean she can take them all on!" Elena exclaimed. "She could kill someone while fighting for her life! She can't become a werewolf while she's pregnant! It could kill the baby!"

Kol shook his head. "Werewolves don't turn under the full moon while pregnant. It's nature's way of assuring that the curse lives on."

"Oh." She rubbed her hands over her face. "We're trying to ensure she doesn't end up sired to Klaus. If she triggers her curse, there's no other way."

"Elena, I know you don't like me, but please believe me. I will do whatever I must to find your sister."

* * *

 **A/N: Here it is!**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	2. 01: Preparation

"Little do you know,  
How I'm breaking while you fall asleep . . .  
. . . I need a little more time.  
Underneath it all,  
I'm held captive by the hole inside."

 _Little Do You Know_ : Alex & Sierra

* * *

I was only hours away from meeting our twins.

There was snow outside of the window, nothing like the summer I had imagined getting to have around me when I gave birth to my kids. I thought I'd be nineteen first, that I wouldn't be some barely legal mom who couldn't even legally have a bank account without an adult co-signer, but unfortunately, my children were going to be born with a child for a mother.

That was a bit harsh on myself, I guess. I was far from a child. Even before all of this happened, life hit me hard; it hit all of us hard. We had no idea what was on the road ahead, which seemed to just begin when Caroline's dad left her mom for another man. We were all devastated with our friend, grieving through it all _with_ her.

We had no idea the true devastation that was ahead of us. That was minor compared to what was coming, even to Caroline. Her parents' divorce wasn't as painful for her as actually losing her father the way that she did, by his own choice.

Kol had told me once that he had compelled Tyler to turn until he no longer felt the pain of turning, but he hadn't mentioned _where_ he got the idea to do that—from Caroline's father, who was trying to help Tyler before he died with vampire blood in his system.

There were so many unanswered questions when I left Mystic Falls behind, but it was all just a blur whenever I thought back to it. The month that I had been gone had been a wild and crazy ride, but along the way, I found some amazing people to help me through it all, people who knew a spell to speed up the development of babies inside of a mother's womb.

In a matter of four weeks, I went from six weeks pregnant to thirty-four weeks. The spell was a secret of the Gemini coven, something they had created to ensure the safety of both twins when one of the twins showed signs of being a siphon. We didn't actually know if either of my twins had the siphoning ability, but for everyone's safety, bringing them into the world now instead of July was a lot safer.

When they first mentioned doing the spell, I was so scared that I wold have my babies the next day, but it didn't work quite that quickly. If the development was sped up more than a week within a twenty-four hour period, there was a risk of killing both twins and me, a very high risk, so I grew a week closer to having them with each passing day. Thirty-four weeks pregnant was the first place where any baby books mentioned that having twins was safe, with a very high survival rate, so that was when we decided to induce my labor.

Technically, I was exactly ten weeks pregnant, so it was all a bit hard to wrap my head around, but by the end of the day—hopefully—I would be holding Alastor and Theia.

Choosing names alone had been pretty hard, and the people with me didn't help all that much. Their names had to mean something, not just sound pretty, so I stumbled upon a site that mentioned Greek mythology names.

Alastor was the Greek minor god who was the avenger of evil deeds, specifically familial ones. I didn't know when I would get to back to Mystic Falls, but when I went back, I hoped that the name Alastor for my son would help Klaus see that all that mattered to me was protecting my children; I didn't want him to lash out, thinking I was holding some grudge that I wasn't. I wanted him to know that I forgave him for everything, for the sake of my children having their family in their lives. The more people in my children's lives, the more protected they would always be.

Of course, Theia was a goddess of sight and the shining light of the bright blue sky. That's what these children had become, after the initial fear and confusion wore off. They had become the first miracle in all of our lives to happen since our parents died; they were my shining light.

Alastor Kolby and Theia Elaine . . . and of course they would have their father's last name.

The warmth from the necklace beneath my fingertips pulled me out of my daze. I hadn't even realized I was touching the vessel that Kol had given me, which even he didn't realize what all it actually was.

He was right about the vessel part. The necklace was capable of storing endless amounts of magic, as far as anyone knew, but it came with a bit of magic of its own. It was an artifact that the Gemini Coven made and lost over a century ago, with a cloaking spell that the Geminis were known for built-in to the whole necklace. As long as I was wearing it, there was a cloaking spell on me, similar to the spells that the Gemini witches with me had put on all of us, to make sure we were hidden from anyone who might try and look for us—friend or foe.

There was no way that Kol knew what all this necklace did. I wondered if it had been created by a siphon, with the hopes of having a place to store excess amounts of magic, but not much was known about it, aside from what it could do. One thing was certain; if Kol knew that it hid me from even him, he never would've given it to me.

How heartbroken he must be, after everything I did to him. He knew I loved him, I hoped, but I had hurt him without reason, at least as far as he knew. At this point, he might've figured out why I left to begin with, but I left without much explanation at all. It had been necessary, but that didn't make my heart cringe any less.

All I wanted was to be back in Mystic Falls with him, to have him next to me while I gave birth to our twins after conceiving them not even three months ago. Without the full time, or even half of the time I was supposed to have to adjust to being pregnant and learning to be a mom, I was struggling to wrap my head around the word, but these babies were definitely real. I could feel them kicking, and they moved so vibrantly whenever the spell was done to accelerate their growth.

They were more than just babies of an Original vampire, with my werewolf and witch gene. They were an anomaly to nature, which was why we had to hide out to begin with. Their blood was as powerful as blood of a doppelgänger, if not more so. It could not only be used to finish the transition into a hybrid, but it could also be used to _create_ hybrids.

It had been nothing but theory until earlier this morning. Then, it had become very real. Their blood was my key to immortality, without siring myself to Klaus. Sure, I'd end up sired to my kids, which could be bad later on, but we could figure all of that out later, when we were all immortal together.

There was only so much blood that we could safely take from the twins, so we had only used blood from each of them on one person, just enough to get into their system and turn them. My blood was used to complete their transition, as a doppelgänger who was still very much alive and well, so we now had two hybrids around, protecting each of my children with their lives. It was strange to look at them and not see Klaus' monsters that I should fear. These hybrids were going to protect my children and me, no matter what.

When they couldn't be forced to do something that my children told them to do, they protected them instead. Maybe it was the same with Klaus' hybrids, but my kids were a bit more breakable.

I looked away from the window and over towards the sound of soft footsteps stepping into the bedroom I had found with a little nook in the corner, giving me a full view of the woods surrounding the cottage we had found to stop and induce labor in.

At the sight of the beautiful blonde witch that had approached me so boldly in the diner that first day after I found out that I was, in fact, pregnant, my lips curled into a half-smile, the best I could really manage right now. Sure, things were good; I was about to give birth to these twins, but their father wasn't here. I didn't know anything about how he might be reacting to any of this either.

Prisca came into the diner and changed my life for the better. She already had a small army of her own, consisting of her long-time girlfriend and werewolf, Maisyn, who was the first to turn from Theia's bloodline; Sutton, the werewolf fiancé of Prisca's twin sister, Shealee, who bravely allowed himself to be turned from Alastor's blood first, when we still didn't know for sure that it would work.

Shealee and Prisca were twins, twin sisters that came from the Gemini coven. They were sent out to the South to look for Travelers, to try and stop them from doing whatever it was they were planning to do—Shea told me, but all I really got from the story was that it was bad. They gave up that quest, however, and abandoned their coven when their uncle, Joshua Parker, called and told them to find the pregnant doppelgänger and kill her before her abominations could be brought into the world.

They already hated their coven, due to its views on who Prisca wanted to marry—they weren't opposed to homosexuality in theory, but they didn't allow their people to _be_ with someone of the same sex due to inability for them to natural conceive. They stuck with it with no other purpose in life, but after being told to murder a pregnant woman, they just couldn't do it anymore, and they would never know how grateful I was to them. No matter what happened with their coven, with my family, they would always be a part of it.

We had gone to their older sister, Iris, after Prisca genuinely believed she would help them protect me, but she wasn't going to do that at all. She actually shunned them and informed the leaders of their coven about what was going on—coven before family, after all.

They had to put a cloaking spell on themselves to hide from their coven, and it was only a matter of time before it wore off.

After running from Iris, we also met two nomad werewolves, after Shea went inside of a hospital and asked to speak with a obstetrician they had on staff, to get pointers without blatantly getting pointers.

Ayven wasn't an obstetrician, but she was in the waiting room when Shea was in there. They started talking casually, while Shea waited, and Shea asked her if she hated her curse. Obviously Ayven was skeptical. Word traveled about Klaus' failed attempts at hybrids, and the side effects of being a successful hybrid. Shea informed her that there might be another way to get around her curse, where she never had to turn again, and from there, Ayven and her older brother, Oryn, came along for the ride.

They were skeptics at first, and they weren't going to be the first to turn through the blood of my children. Sutton didn't mind being the first, however; he wanted Shealee, who had been the one to come up with the theory about the twins being able to sire their own line of hybrids, to see that he absolutely trusted her.

She was always insecure about her magic, about the ideas she came up with, and he wanted her to have confidence in herself, like he did.

Turns out, she was right. Sutton was alive and well—or dead and well, after using my blood to transition.

Once Maisyn woke up, after Shea and Ayven had everything ready to go, we were going to induce labor. Prisca, after doing extensive amounts of research, decided that giving birth naturally was the safest route for all of us, so that's what we were doing. Ayven had conned her ex, who was an obstetrician she had been visiting at the time of running into Shea, to come two towns over from where he worked, a good hour at least. He hadn't arrived yet, but once he was here, Sutton was going to compel him to deliver the babies for us.

"Maisyn just woke up," Prisca told me, after the silence continued to fill the air. "She's transitioned, and I think Shea's almost ready to go. All we're waiting on now is the doctor, and Ayven said he was about five minutes out. If you need to pee or do anything, now's probably a good time. I don't know how long this is gonna take. This spell is always tricky. It does weird things to labor and whatnot."

"I know," I said, and my smile widened a bit. "You told me at least a hundred times before actually doing it the first time. I knew what I was getting into, but you guys were definitely right. It's easier to protect them when they're outside of the womb. I'm still very breakable."

She smiled back, though it was as worn as I felt. We had all had a rough few weeks, between traveling relentlessly and doing whatever we could to safely ensure that the twins made it into the world okay, without a war waging around them that might be the death of them anyways.

It had definitely taken a toll on us all, but it was gonna be worth it by the end of the day. We would have the twins in our arms, able to physically hold everything we had fought so hard for in our arms.

I had never really given much thought to whether I even wanted kids or not, though I was never adamantly opposed to the idea of them. I just never really planned them out like Elena had. For me, this was more than just an accidental pregnancy. My entire life had been flipped around and twisted into nothing that ever thought it would be, yet here I was, happy.

These kids were loved, through all the struggle and impossibility that surrounded their very being. Kol and I hadn't been together very long, but I did love him, in a way that I imagined would last forever. Even if we didn't, I would always love him in a way that I couldn't just let go of.

Surely it would be the same for him, since he had never loved to begin with. I didn't like thinking about what might happen if we broke up, though; all I wanted to be was reunited with him.

Taking Prisca's advice, I waddled my bulging self into the bathroom. Waddling was my only means of walking, at least within the past few days. About a week ago, you could definitely tell I was pregnant, but it was still impossible to say for certain that there were two twins in there—but not anymore.

Covered in a sports bra that had recently been purchased, since any other bras that I had brought with me no longer fit even remotely—pretty much nothing I had fit at this point—I wore a pair of Sutton's sweats over my legs, resting just underneath the large bulge that was my stomach.

There weren't the horrifying stretch marks that I had always imagined having, and it wasn't because of some cream or spell that anyone had done. I had a theory that the twins blood was healing me, as if it was vampire blood in my veins, so any time my skin stretched, their blood healed the scars, as if it hadn't even happened. Even my bulging breasts didn't have a single mark.

It was every pregnant woman's dream. I was definitely fortunate, though I didn't have the "pregnant glow" people always talked about.

Somehow, my colorless hair looked deader than ever; my already strange eyes, one chocolate brown and the other arctic blue, resembled that of the walking dead—the zombies, not vampires who didn't stick out in a crowd.

The rough four weeks definitely showed; I could see the pain that I had gone through each day when they sped up the growth of the twins. I tried to hide it because Shea refused to do anything that was going to hurt me, and I managed the first few days. After that, stopping was dangerous, so even through the pain, they had to continue the growth.

Imagine feeling your insides expanding, as if they were preparing to burst. It was as if someone had stuck their hand inside of my body and started stretching every part of me that had to make room for twins, violently, and all I could do was suck it up and deal with the pain. Pregnancy was meant to take enough time that it didn't have to destroy your body to hold a child, but we were defying that very concept with the spell.

At any point in my life before, the pain wouldn't have seemed worth it to bear. One paper, it was the most horrifying thing I had been through yet, but it was a sacrifice I would make over and over again if it meant ensuring the safety of my children. The only way to make them safe was to bring them into the world, now.

At the end of the day, I would be able to hold my children, after carrying them for a record ten weeks. Would they look like me? Would they look like Kol? Would they be a happy mix of the two? The possibilities were endless, but I was eager to find out, as soon as Ayven's ex arrived to start the process.

Everything I had gone though, everything I had yet to go through, would all be worth it when I finally got to hold the miracle twins.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey everyone! So, updates for this one won't be as frequent as they were for _Flicker_. I hate that, but there's not a whole lot I can do. I'm stuck at chapter 13 of this story and can't figure out where to take things next. I will get past that, however, but it may slow things down in the meantime.**

 **Still, I'm not giving up until I see this story through!**

 **Also, I was kinda hesitant to introduce so many new characters at once, but I didn't have much choice. Each are important in their own way for later parts of the story. I had originally intended for there to be more werewolves around, but then I decided that there were far too many and stuck with the six new characters.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	3. 02: Lost

"Girl, there's always gonna be some pain.  
A little sunshine, a little rain.  
It doesn't mean it ain't worth it, babe.  
I'm trying, I'm trying to get to you."

 _Get to You, Chapter 1: Michael Ray_

* * *

Kol was running out of options.

How many times had he searched through this same grimoire? There were dozens at the Salvatore Boarding house, which was where he found himself then, but he had looked through all of them, some more than once.

Yet there were no locator spells that they hadn't pointlessly tried. None of them were bringing them any closer to finding Darcy.

He wasn't alone inside of the library for long. Damon, who had unwittingly become on speaking terms with him, stepped into the library and walked over to the table where he sat with grimoires stacked up on the far end of the shelf. They had offered to bring some into the library for him to read, but Kol was desperate at this point. He didn't want to waste any moments between walking from the living room to the library, even if it was more comfortable.

Darcy was out there somewhere, carrying his child, and he couldn't begin to find her. He felt lost and confused, and he could only imagine how horrified she must be. He was supposed to protect her, yet she was lost to him, at some unknown place with a potential army of witches chasing after her, trying to murder her and their unborn child.

He hadn't slowed down to think about the possibilities of a child. He hadn't stopped to think about what this meant for him, for his family. Until Darcy was safe, he wasn't allowing himself to think about any of it. He wanted her safe, and then he could get used to the idea of being a father, once the possibility was still there. It didn't matter if it was something he wanted or not; this was very real, and Darcy left town to protect these children. She was going to do what she had to do to bring them into the world, and Kol was going to do what he had to do to help her take care of them.

It takes two, after all, even if neither party realized it was even remotely possible.

Damon slid a glass of blood Kol's way, and Kol didn't even flinch, only continued skimming over the spell on the page he currently had the grimoire turned to. "You know you have to drink blood, right? You'll desiccate if you don't."

Kol didn't say anything, or even so much as look at the glass he picked up in his hand. All he did was turn his face just enough to get the glass next to his mouth so he could drink everything in it in one large gulp.

"There."

Damon let out a soft sigh and continued to watch as Kol searched through the grimoire to no avail. Right now, they weren't so sure how safe it was for the Mikaelsons to go to any witch contacts they had, so that was where Stefan and Bonnie had gone out in search of their own. Bonnie didn't have many, but she was a Bennett witch. That name carried a lot of weight in the witch community. Finding any known locator spells would be easy for her.

Klaus had also left to go to New Orleans, to try and get some old contacts down there to keep an eye out for Darcy. He planned to be gone for a few days to find out how well he could trust the people he knew in New Orleans, as this was his niece or nephew whose life was in danger. He wasn't going to just trust that the people there were still friends of his, not after everything that had happened last time he was in New Orleans. Last he heard, he hadn't even gotten much into town because of the tension in the place, the hostility, so Kol didn't imagine he was going to risk telling anyone there about the child.

Elena followed after Damon, with the intentions of grabbing a few grimoires of her own. She knew that Kol had scoured every one in the Salvatore library at least once, but he was looking again. She thought she might try and help him out with the second go round.

Kol, though his eyes remained on the grimoire, almost smiled to himself when he noticed Elena stop next to Damon, almost sinking into his presence, even subconsciously. _Darcy will love this when she gets home_.

He hadn't learned much about what made Elena choose Damon, when it came down to a choice between Damon and Stefan, but he knew that Darcy was going to be quite pleased. He remembered multiple rants on the subject, finding himself very intrigued with how much she cared about her sister's romantic life. Most siblings didn't care that much, at least as far as he had seen, yet Darcy did. She had made a pros and cons spreadsheet, pinpointing all the different reasons why each was better for her and worse for her.

In the end, she came to the conclusion that she had wanted to come to: Damon was better for her. A part of Kol's subconscious wondered if Damon had mentioned to Elena that he had slept with her sister, but he didn't imagine it would've changed the outcome, despite what Damon feared. Elena knew that he had slept with her biological mother, and the last doppelgänger known, so he didn't imagine that sleeping with her sister would change the choice that she made.

He wondered if it was why Stefan was so eager to leave town on a witch hunt. The fact that Elena had chosen Damon hadn't really been an easy thing for him to swallow.

"I know it may be a long shot, but what about looking for the child?" Elena asked, almost absentmindedly. She picked a random grimoire off the shelf and placed it on the table in front of Kol, and she sat down in the uncomfortable chair across from him. "Darcy seems pretty well hidden somehow, but what if we look for the baby?"

"That's not a bad idea." Kol reached over and grabbed a letter opener off the table they sat at, something that he had almost thrown across the room at one point in his frustrating reading session. "Where's a map and Bonnie Bennett?"

"She's on a date," Damon spoke up before Elena had a chance to reach for her phone. "She got back into town earlier this evening, but she said to call if we needed anything."

Elena nodded and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Kol allowed his eyes to peel away from the grimoire so that he could look at the twin sister of the woman he loved, who had almost become a friend through all of this. His siblings had insisted he was wasting away over nothing, that he was being overly anxious to find them, and even Damon had mentioned that he should take a break every now and then.

Elena never said things like that to him. She had spent most of her time tirelessly searching alongside him, and if there had been any doubt in her mind about Kol's feelings for her sister before, there wasn't anymore. No one would look that hard for someone they didn't truly love and care about.

She got busy calling Bonnie and having her come over, and Kol listened just to hear her mention that it might work. At this point, it was the closest they had come to a lead. Any locator spell failed. She hadn't shown up anywhere they searched, anywhere they believed she might've gone. Even a search for the car that she had been driving hadn't brought up any leads thus far.

Where had she disappeared to?

Kol finished looking through the grimoire in his hands by the time Bonnie and Jeremy arrived, both dressed appropriately for the outing they had been out on. Neither looked irritated to be there, so Kol was grateful for that, at least.

Everyone was searching. Even Caroline had her mom doing all that she could to hunt Darcy down. Mystic Falls had limited police support, however, but she had made the necessary calls. Every available resource was on a manhunt for the woman that Kol loved, though he wasn't really surprised. Throughout their entire relationship, all he had seen was people caring about Darcy at every turn. They took care of her, even if they didn't agree with things she did sometimes. It was everything he had always hoped his siblings could be, but he was grateful that Darcy had that kind of support system in her life.

Bonnie grabbed a map of the United States that the Salvatores seemed to have an infinite amount of, maybe for the purpose of using them for locator spells. He didn't ask a lot of questions, only took advantage of any situation that might lead him to Darcy and his unborn child faster.

She grabbed Kol's hand and the letter opener, without saying a single word, and she slid it across his palm. Kol held his balled fist over the map to drip enough of his blood onto the map, but Bonnie didn't stop with Kol's blood. She took Elena's hand as well and dripped some of her blood into the mixture of his, and he was stunned she thought that far ahead about it.

Kol's blood and the closest blood relative that Darcy had could lead to being able to locate the child, even if it was nestled inside of her womb.

He watched with far too much hope; life had never been this cruel to him. Any time he put any effort into something, he usually got what he wanted, and he had spent countless days staring at grimoires.

Yet as Bonnie chanted the words to the locator spell, as the candles on the table caught fire, the blood remained pooled in the location that it had fallen down onto.

Kol could feel his entire body shaking, the agony of utter disappointment ripping through his very soul, but he let the pain simmer until Bonnie stopped chanting, until she opened her eyes to see what Kol had already seen.

Once again, it was doing nothing.

In an instant, Kol had the table flipped over. The agony wasn't so buried inside anymore, and it was coming out in the form of rage. He could handle anger. It was something he had felt most of his existence, and pain had been there before as well.

This was entirely different. This was everything he never thought to look for being ripped from him, being held dangerously away while carrying a child whose life she valued. That alone gave the child's life value to Kol, and then add on the fact that it was _his_. . . his child.

It hurt. It tore him up in ways that didn't even compare to any of the physical pain he had endured over the years. Physical pain would've been welcomed at this point.

Everyone was trying to just stay out of his way as he threw grimoires around the room, strew the very things that he had valued for the past couple of weeks about as if they were garbage.

He didn't even notice when someone else came into the room. Rebekah was frantic, seeing her brother lose control of himself like this. It was something they had expected much sooner, but he had remained mostly calm up to this point. Seeing this now scared her, as she didn't know how far it could go. He had held it in for so long that finally letting it out could prove dangerous for anyone nearby.

"Kol, wait a moment! Elijah might have found something."

He was tired of hoping, tired of chasing leads that didn't get him anywhere. He was tired of feeling the first bit of relief, making himself so certain that this would be the answer only to be shown over and over again that it wasn't, in fact, the answer he so desperately sought.

Still, hearing something come from Elijah gave him hope that he wondered if he would regret feeling. Elijah had been the most determined of all of his siblings to find Darcy, as the very idea of a child was bringing their family together in a way that Kol couldn't remember since they were made into vampires.

What would things be like when Darcy was back? When the child was actually born?

He didn't like to think about it that way, as the most important thing was getting Darcy home safely, but the rest was just more endless possibilities that he had to look forward to, a future that she had always wanted him to look towards. He had never put much investment into the future, but she gave him reason to, and even with her missing and unable to be found, he still found himself hoping and looking forward to the future he had paved out the night of their first date. His future was her, an endless future of possibilities that none of his family had gotten to experience yet.

That future _would_ be his future, one way or another.

Elijah stepped into the room after Rebekah, holding up an old and worn book with a ribbon sticking out of the top, as if it had been placed to mark a specific page. The way Elijah's eyes seemed to shine, with the hope that Kol feared feeling, he found his heart racing, his mind pulling him closer to his brother, to the book within his hands.

"What is it?"


	4. 03: Rest

"I don't ever wanna be someone who follows everybody else.  
When everyone is busy out chasing,  
I'll make another road myself  
Cause I know I was meant for something more.  
There's gotta be something here worth fighting for.

This could be all we've been looking for.  
This could be all we've been waiting for."

 _Don't Wanna Be_ : The Score

* * *

I remember every detail. Without the side effects of the epidural, but the same numb feeling from my stomach down, I remembered each second of the three hour labor of twins.

I liked to think it was their father's impatience showing in them, but Shea insisted it was magic that sped up the labor.

Everything had gone off without a hitch. After being compelled to deliver my twins as if it was a normal procedure inside of a hospital room, Shea and Prisca stood on each side of me and numbed me with magic. It was basically a magical epidural, and holy hell did it do the trick.

If I hadn't learned how to control myself and my siphoning, I might've siphoned it all away, but Shea and Prisca had been helping me learn how to keep control of myself. There was still so much for me to learn, but I wasn't a dysfunctional witch anymore. I could do spells through my vessel. So far, it hadn't run out of magic, but I hadn't gotten a chance to do much, as I didn't want to accidentally pull magic from my bloodstream or children by accident. Magic was probably the only thing keeping them safe, with all the sped up growth and such.

They were here, and they were more beautiful that my mind could've imagined. Each had pieces of Kol and me in them, though Alastor _definitely_ looked like his father. They were both so tiny, but I could see features of each of us in both children, which was amazing.

Ayven and Oryn were both in the other room in transition, or at least dead and waiting to wake up in transition. I was a bit hesitant to take any blood from them, but Prisca numbed them so that they didn't even cry.

It didn't take a lot, and there were already two cups with my blood to complete the transition. It made it a bit easier, since they only had to lose enough blood to put the werewolves into transition. I could provide the rest.

Their blood was still in my system as well. It had been in my system throughout everything. All the parts inside of me that had been broken or shifted to give birth were healed back to normal. The only signs of pregnancy that remained on my body were the swollen breasts, leaking with breastmilk, and the fat along my thighs. In a lot of ways, I had grown thicker curves, but I was trying not to focus on how much weight I had gained and instead focused on the beautiful children in my arms.

They both were born with a headful of dark hair, which was amazing. Their eyes were blue, but it was a colorless blue. I didn't imagine they would stay that color for all of their lives. Aside from their slightly different facial features, they were definitely siblings. They both had Kol's button nose, and they both seemed to have the rounded shape of my eyes. I knew they would change the more they grew up, but right now, they were the perfect mixture of us both. It was more than I could've ever hoped for.

They were the only things that were going to get me through the holidays. If I had still been pregnant through Christmas, I probably would've had a meltdown. Nothing in me was ready to deal with my first Christmas away from family, but with these two to hold, it would be okay.

I didn't like the idea of their first Christmas being spent away from family, on the road, but they wouldn't remember it anyways. Maybe by their first Christmas they might actually enjoy opening presents, we'd be back with family, and it could be something magical that we all enjoyed.

Kol didn't celebrate the holidays, but I imagined he would now.

This had been the year I had hoped that the holidays could be normal for us again, after our parents died and all, but they were far from normal.

To make up for the fact that this was the most unorthodox and horrible first Christmas I could imagine for my children, I bought a camera. It wasn't anything fancy or elaborate, like the camera I had always wanted to get growing up, but it was all I needed to have some memory of their first Christmas to show to everyone when we got to go home, to show them when they were older.

They were going to make it to be older.

With the twins asleep on each side of my arms, moving was pretty difficult, but I did the best that I could to lean across the bed and grab the camera off of the bedside table. Of course I documented their first day on the earth well. Most mothers didn't get the luxury of getting up and moving around like I was, as if I hadn't just given birth to twins, but their blood _did_ heal me. They were truly vampire-werewolf-witch tribrids.

I got to get up and photograph them sleeping, or take pictures of their eyes opening and looking around at the different people surrounding them. They hadn't done much but sleep, as they were newborn children, but the first breastfeeding session had been a success.

There was a clear difference in the pictures that I took and the ones that Ayven took. She didn't take _bad_ pictures, but when you grow up with the dream of becoming a photographer, you learn how to take pictures as best as you can, even if your parents did try and discourage that dream.

It wasn't that they didn't love me, but it was hard to make it in the photography business. They wanted me to be able to provide for my family, and they didn't imagine that photography would do that. It was when I decided to become a vet. They made a decent enough living to comfortably provide for a family.

None of that mattered anymore, in the face of the life that was to come. Esther was dead, and with her death came the spirits of the Other Side who planned to use what power they had on _this_ side of the Veil to hunt down my children and kill them both, simply because they existed.

How was that fair? How was that right?

The sound of footsteps slowly creeping into the room ripped me away from the thoughts in my mind, back into the present world around me. It was Prisca, wearing a warm smile and equally warm fuzzy pajamas.

We had mentioned hitting the road tonight, but I think everyone had decided against that in the long run. It had been a busy day for all of us, and I was well enough to go, but for the sake of the twins, we wanted to stay behind and let them rest well.

Moving around like we had been would be a lot harder now that they were there, but maybe we didn't have to move so often. No one had found us yet. Prisca and Shea made sure to cloak us all, and almost the instant that the twins were born, they cloaked them as well.

It was a powerful Gemini spell that most in the Gemini coven were taught as their first spell. Whereas most were taught incendia, they were taught the cloaking spell.

Prisca moved over to sit next to me on the bed, shifting her weight carefully away from the twins so she didn't disturb them. They hadn't been light sleepers thus far, but they were only about seven hours old.

"You don't have long before their blood leaves your system, you know," she reminded me. "Taking anymore . . . it's dangerous right now. They need to heal."

"I know."

"We have a vial of your blood," she continued, and I knew exactly what issue she was trying to press.

I shook my head. "I'm not going to turn right now."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "It would be a lot easier. Shea and I decided to turn as well, using Maisyn and Sutton's blood. Once you've got the cloaking spell down well enough, that is."

"You guys don't have to do that," I disagreed, and my eyebrows furrowed, my lips twisting into a deep frown.

She shrugged. "No, but, I mean, the people we love most are already hybrids. We want forever with them, even if it means giving up our magic."

"I wanna try to breastfeed before I turn," I said. "I know I can do the cloaking spell after I'm a vampire, but I don't want to turn yet."

That had been another neat fact I learned about myself; siphoners were able to be vampires and witches because of the nature of their magic. They didn't lose the ability to siphon magic away from things, making them able to be both.

"Okay. It's your decision."

"Can you guys hold out?" I asked. "I've almost got the cloaking spell down, but Shea mentioned something about a dream spell that we could do. I know it's probably lame, but there's something I wanna do on New Year's Eve."

"Of course," she said, and her lips curled into the pretty smile that I loved seeing every day. Prisca was almost always smiling, unless something was really wrong, but I never got tired of seeing it. "It's your call, ultimately. These are your kids."

"Thank you."

Just the reminder that there were babies in my arms got my gaze peeling away from her, back down to the angels in my arms.

With only ten weeks of carrying them, it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that they were, in fact, mine, but they were beautiful, nonetheless. My heart felt as if it was going to burst inside of my chest at the sight of them, with pieces of Kol and me scattered amongst them.

The man that I loved, the man that I wanted a future with, had conceived miracle children with me, and I didn't know how he was going to react to them. I didn't know what lied ahead on the path ahead of us, but having these tiny pieces of Kol with me helped my aching heart deal with the separation.

One month was all it took for my world to change entirely, and there was no telling what each day would mean now, with these two now here safely.

The endless possibilities ahead were so beautiful.

* * *

 **A/N: So weirdly enough, I tried to update all day yesterday, and it kept telling me that there was an error with the file. So I would try to upload them manually, and it told me the same thing. It worked today, though, so here ya go!**

 **Side note, my son spilled water on my computer a couple weeks ago, so I've been using one with a broken screen, and it's been super heavy. So what does my amazing family do for my Christmas present? Buys me the best computer I've ever had. It's got a touch screen, and I imagine that I will never be able to have a computer without one again. Seriously, it's so handy.**

 **I'll try to keep updates coming, but I've only got through chapter 13. That kinda scares me because I don't really know where to go from there, or at least how to get to where the story is going to go. I'll figure it out, though. Promise.**


	5. 04: Transition Plan

"My castle crumbled overnight.  
I brought a knife to a gunfight.  
They took the crown, but it's alright.  
All the liars are calling me one.  
Nobody's heard from me for months.  
I'm doing better than I ever was, 'cause

My baby's fit like a daydream,  
Walking with his head down.  
I'm the one he's walking to.  
So call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to.  
My baby's fly like a jet stream.  
High above the whole scene,  
Loves me like I'm brand new."

 _Call It What You Want_ : Taylor Swift

* * *

There was the first real piece of hope that Kol had gotten since Darcy disappeared. He had stupidly felt relief after he killed his mother, thinking that he had kept them all safe, but of course she had another way to come back, or at least she would. She hadn't shown herself yet, so Kol didn't actually know if she was alive, but he was going to be ready, even if it meant allowing Klaus to build his hybrid army to surround them all with as protection against her and whatever else might come their way.

As long as Darcy and his unborn child were safe and back in his arms, that was all he cared about anymore.

The spell that Elijah had found, buried in a grimoire from five centuries ago, was something that was known as a binding spell. It would essentially bind Kol to Darcy's will so that he could sense where she was, very much like a magical sire bond. There was only a single spell to do, without an answer on how to remove the spell or undo its effects, and that was the only reason it still hadn't been done to Kol.

Everyone was refusing to just bind him to Darcy without some way to unlink them. There was no history on the spell, nothing known about it, but they were all very insistent on spending another day trying to uncover anything they could about that one spell in particular. They wanted to know the exact effects.

Kol didn't care at all. If it sired him to Darcy, so what? She was the kind of person who wouldn't take advantage of that. She'd probably be pretty annoyed and find a way to undo it herself. He remembered fondly the many rants about "whipped" boyfriends, such as Stefan, who never fought for the best thing. They only did whatever the girlfriend wanted, and she didn't want submission. She wanted a partnership.

There was so much to be done that Kol didn't bother wasting his day looking for more information on that spell, information that probably didn't even exist. Instead, he was looking into the history of werewolves, anything written down and available. The Salvatores didn't have anything of use, as they didn't even know werewolves existed until shortly before Klaus came to town and started ruining their lives.

Maybe he could find something of value, something that would help him know if Darcy had to be turned with Klaus' blood or not. Surely _someone_ in history had documented whether an untriggered werewolf could turn into a vampire.

Tyler had been able to break the sire bond, much to Klaus' anger, but the way he had to do it had been excruciating to him. He never wanted Darcy to have to turn once, much less over and over again until it no longer hurt to turn.

He wanted her eternity to start out on a good note, not through endless suffering. Tyler mentioned that it took over a hundred times, more than most werewolves have to turn throughout their entire lives. That was a nightmare he would never wish upon the only woman he cared about.

Had she triggered her werewolf curse, though?

He wasn't left alone with his thoughts long. Someone had rang the doorbell in the other room, but he had been too lost in his werewolf book to pay attention to who had arrived, at least until Bonnie Bennett stepped into the Mikaelson library with a repressed smile on her usually kind face.

Out of all of Darcy's friends, she was Kol's favorite. She had such a big heart, and it also helped that she was a powerful witch. Kol very much enjoyed anything magic related, so he was fascinated with anyone that descended from the Bennett line.

"We found something."

* * *

This was nothing like what I had hoped.

Breastfeeding was a tricky business. There were a lot of things that had to happen in order to get the milk producing like it needed to, such as attempting the first feed within the first hour of the child, or children, being born. I made sure to do that, and it had been successful. I wasn't spouting out gallons of milk, but it was everything that was supposed to happen within the first day or so of breastfeeding.

The milk production hadn't picked up over the past couple of weeks, despite my efforts, and it was really starting to get to me. The world had decided that breastfeeding was the best and only way, unless you wanted to be a horrible mom. Everything I read on the Internet basically said breast is best.

Yet here we were at the grocery store buying formula. Oryn was inside while Ayven and I stayed inside the running car with the twins. Their car seats were in the back on each outside seat, and I managed to squeeze in the middle. Usually, Prisca or Shea squeezed in, as they were the thinnest, but it was just Oryn, Ayven, and me on this grocery run.

"Do you think it's because of twins?"

Ayven sighed and turned around towards me, giving me a sort of reassuring smile. "It's okay, Darcy. Seriously. The people on the Internet may judge you, but I worked with a lot of women who struggled to breastfeed. You're putting too much emphasis on it. Yes, breastmilk is the best thing for your children when it comes to breastmilk and formula, but do you wanna know what the best thing for them is? A mommy who isn't stressing about having to feed them formula in order to fill their stomachs. You're letting yourself get too worked up about it, sweetheart. It happens. Some women can't breastfeed at all, so the fact that you're able to supplement formula is a feat all on its own. Fully breastfeeding twins is very hard. You're doing an amazing job, and the effort alone is important."

Compliments like that were never something I did well with, so instead of pushing the subject further, I dropped it and allowed another one to come to mind, one I had been meaning to talk to Ayven about anyways.

"Did you ever meet any vampires over your travels?"

"Plenty," she said, and her kind smile widened. "Oryn and I never believed in the feud between wolves and vampires, though, so we were friends with them all, unless they tried to kill us. We even met one whose boyfriend came from a family of werewolves, but he hadn't triggered his curse, so when he transitioned, it was a normal transition—until he killed someone. After that, he became unstable, bleeding out of the eyes, until he grew rabid and eventually died."

That was extremely familiar, the thing that Stefan had described the hybrids doing before Klaus learned that they had to complete their transition with the blood of a doppelgänger.

Before that, however, there was the hybrid curse. Esther had put it on Klaus to keep his werewolf side dormant, but what if it was something that extended out towards any hybrids that had come to exist in a similar way that Klaus had? He had triggered his curse after turning, so maybe the hybrid curse covered all basis, not allowing other hybrids to exist while it was active on Klaus.

Maybe they could exist now that it was gone. Maybe that way was still available.

If anyone would know, it would be Shea, who had spent most of her free time after leaving the coven in Portland studying up on supernatural creatures. When Prisca introduced her to Maisyn, her fascination only grew.

"So how did you and Oryn trigger your curses?" I asked.

She took a deep breath and turned away from me, her smile fading while her eyes tightened around the edges, her lips pressing into a thin pale line. "Our parents fought a lot. Our dad had a really bad temper, as he was the one with the gene, and his drinking only made it worse. We went out to get some space between their bickering, and Oryn left me at the door of the grocery store at the end of the block to run back and get his phone. That was all the time four guys in a local gang needed to swoop in and try to gang rape me."

"Oh my gosh." My hand covered my mouth, the warm air inside the car burning my eyes as they opened wider. "If you don't want to talk about it—"

"No, it's okay," she assured me. "I was able to fend them off, well enough that when I punched one of them, it snapped his neck. That was how my curse triggered, and Oryn's followed not even two minutes later. He heard scuffling and came running, and when he saw what was going on, he grabbed one of the guys by the shirt and threw him into the building. His spine shattered against the wall, which triggered Oryn's curse. The two left took off, and so did we."

"I can't imagine how terrifying that must've been," I murmured, and my eyebrows furrowed. "Did you guys leave town?"

She nodded. "It was believed to be gang related. The place we grew up was a major gang area, with gang wars breaking out almost daily. There were usually dead gang members laying about, and their deaths were usually just assumed to be gang related—just like with those two. We wouldn't have gone to jail or anything, but the gang the four people were members of would've been after us. So we packed our bags and left town that night. We didn't leave notes for our parents because honestly, it was safer if no one knew anything about where we were. It was better if we were believed to be dead."

"I can't imagine going through something like that." I found myself looking over to the covered car seats beside me, and my heart suddenly felt as if it was sinking inside of my chest. "I don't . . . I don't wanna live my life this way. I don't want them to grow up constantly looking over their shoulders, living in fear. I want them to have a good life."

"They will," she assured me. "We'll all make sure of that, and from what you've told me about their father, I'm pretty sure he will, too."

"I don't know how he's gonna react to them when he finds out," I admitted, but the reminder that Kol still didn't know about them, at least as far as I knew, made my heart tense up. It was uncomfortable, but I figured I probably deserved a bit of discomfort for all that I had done to him. "He was so hurt when I left."

"You did what you had to do," she said. "He'll understand, I'm sure."

 _I just hope he's okay_.

The conversation between Ayven and me died, and little Theia began to stir in the pink covered car seat to my right. I had never been big on baby girl's being covered in pink, but there weren't really a lot of options when it came to picking stuff out on the run. Alastor's car seat cover was a baby blue as well, and both had wool lining on the inside to make sure they stayed nice and warm.

The last thing we needed was either of them getting sick. Ideally, you weren't supposed to bring babies out of your house the first six weeks of their life, but we didn't have a house to stay in.

It was a horrible situation for them to be born in, and I couldn't shake the thought that I was already failing them as a mother. I knew nothing about being a mother, and every day was spent in cars or in a place entirely new that we only hoped was safe for them to sleep.

That was one reason breastfeeding was so important to me. Without the comfort of a stable home environment, it was important that they got all the antibodies they could form me, anything to give them an edge.

Then again, maybe their very nature gave them an edge that I didn't have to worry about. They had vampire blood, or at least blood that could heal. Maybe it would keep them healthy, too.

Still, I didn't want to leave anything to chance, so I was determined to make sure that I continued to breastfeed as much as I possibly could. As soon as it was safe, we'd find a proper home for them, too, maybe even home back in Mystic Falls.

Would it ever be safe? Would we ever be able to stop running?

Right now, the most important thing we were hiding from was Shea and Prisca's older sister, Iris. Prisca had believed that Iris would side with us over their coven, that she wouldn't agree with the slaughter of innocent babies, but she had been wrong. Iris had threatened to call in the coven if they didn't do what they were sent to do, so we began running as far away from Iris as we could get.

The Geminis were going to come after us one day, if no one else did. They would.

Theia had only stirred, still remaining fast asleep with her tiny eyes closed and a hint of a smile on her lips. Alastor wasn't a mad baby, but he didn't have a seemingly permanent smile glued on his face. He did smile, though, whenever he was awake.

As far as the personalities they were born with, I got extremely lucky. Neither of them were up through the night crying, only woke to feed every so often. They didn't cry much at all, though Theia _hated_ having her diaper changed. Their lives, despite being chaotic and terrible, were happy.

That was the most important thing to me; their safety and their happiness.

I tucked the pink car seat cover back closed and scooped my phone up out of the floor beneath my feet. I could see Oryn heading out of the store, towards the car, but there was something I needed to ask Shea before I forgot, before something else came up that got in the way.

 ** _Do you think that turning me with Kol's blood is possible now that the hybrid curse is broken? Ayven said she knew a vampire who had become a vampire without triggering their curse, but they became unstable once they did. Do you think the hybrid curse had something to do with that?_**

 ** _That very much sounds like the hybrid curse had something to do with that. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible now, as long as your curse remains untriggered._**

The words across my screen had my heart racing so fast inside of my chest that it made it hard to breath. It was an erratic plan, with so many different places it could all go wrong, but it was what I wanted. I didn't know the state of things back in Mystic Falls, but I didn't imagine everyone was on Team Kol. They were probably looking for ways to kill him as I sat here, planning out my eternity with him.

Even if things didn't work out in the long run, I wanted my first love to be the one who turned me. I wanted his blood to be what made me immortal, his choice.

It was a euphoric thought, the entire plan, but it _could_ work, as long as each step was carefully taken to ensure that nothing happened in a way it shouldn't.

One day, Kol's blood would turn me, and the blood of my children would save me.

* * *

 **A/N: Let me know what you guys think! :)**


	6. 05: Force

"Waking up to kiss you and nobody's there.  
The smell of your perfume still stuck in the air.  
It's hard.  
Yesterday I thought I saw your shadow running round.  
It's funny how things never change in this old town,  
So far from the stars.

And I want to tell you everything,  
The words I never got to say the first time around . . .  
. . . Wish I was there with you now

If the whole world was watching, I'd still dance with you,  
Drive highways and byways to be there with you.  
Over and over the only truth,  
Everything comes back to you."

 _This Town_ : Niall Horan

* * *

"Listen to yourself for two seconds, brother!"

Kol had worked really hard to ignore his siblings all this time, after Bonnie had shown up and showed him the only piece of history that they had found in regard to the linking spell.

One person had documented how it worked, how their partner's will had become all they cared about doing anymore. In most situations, that would've been his worst nightmare, but he knew Darcy Gilbert. He knew the good heart and soul that she had. He knew that she would never take advantage of a linking spell.

The Salvatores had plenty of candles, but Bonnie had asked Kol to bring the rest of the things she needed for the spell, aside from Darcy's DNA, which Elena had gotten from her hairbrush. Most importantly, she needed the grimoire that contained the spell, but Rebekah had taken it when she realized that Kol was going to do it without looking into the consequences of it.

It was a powerful spell that they were attempting to do, one that would require the power of the full moon that night to perform it. The calendar had been fairly empty of celestial events powerful enough to carry out the spell, but it was finally here, the full moon that they had waited for.

Elena was joining him, desperate to get this going and her pregnant sister safe with them again. She struggled to understand why Darcy believed that it was safer to leave if she knew that the child was Kol's. They would've all protected her from their mother if they knew, even Klaus.

She was a bit surprised by the lack of concern Klaus had that one of the doppelgängers had conceived a child. He hadn't even mentioned the bloodline continuing for him to have his hybrids later in life. His concern was bringing home the woman that was pregnant with his brother's child.

It was the first time in a very long time that anyone had seen Klaus do something for his family, something that he didn't gain much of anything from. All he would gain is the assurance that his niece or nephew would be safe.

Elena wasn't the only one standing in the kitchen with Kol. Rebekah and Elijah were there as well, Rebekah only showing up from what she had been doing after hearing Elijah scream at their brother, who was doing well to ignore him.

Rebekah had been on a little mission of her own, something Kol had asked her to do for him while he focused all of his energy on bringing Darcy back. He wanted to ensure that it was safe for him to turn the woman he loved, without Klaus' blood. When studying everything known and documented about werewolves, he found something that led him to a pack of werewolves just inside of North Carolina. Rebekah had gone and found that there was, in fact, an untriggered one, and she had appealed to the woman, asking her if she wanted to be free from the fear of accidentally killing someone. She admitted that she did, that triggering her curse was her greatest fear, so Rebekah convinced her to come along with her.

She had turned her with her own blood and killed her, which was where Rebekah had left her, trapped in one of the many guest rooms that Klaus had built into the home while the blood in her system worked to bring her back as someone in transition.

Klaus had built rooms for all of his siblings, but he had also made room for at least a few of his hybrids. Only thirteen remained at this point, and one of them wasn't sired. Kol imagined Tyler was probably teaching the others how to break the sire bond, but at this point, Klaus didn't care. His concern was his family, even the unborn one.

"Please, Kol, listen to us!" Rebekah insisted.

"No, I think it's time _you_ listened, both of you!" he practically yelled back at them, turning away from the pantry after locating a large bag of salt. "Darcy is somewhere out there, carrying my child and completely alone for all I know! She has no idea what's coming for her, and she's defenseless unless I can find her! This is the only way to do that! We've tried everything, and nothing else works. This is the only hope that I have!"

"You saw what this spell did to the woman whose lover was put under it!" Rebekah exclaimed. "Do you understand what you're doing? Has that even processed in your love struck brain?"

Kol actually snorted, rolling his eyes towards his sister. He threw the bag of salt over his shoulder and took the first step for the door. "That's rich coming from you."

This was news to Elena, however. Bonnie had only shown up a few days prior with the journal entry regarding what had happened to the only documented person who was put under this spell, and it hadn't been pretty. He spiraled into madness as his lover could never be satisfied. The spell itself became a curse to them both. The power she had over him got to her in a dark way, but that didn't matter. Kol knew Darcy. He knew that she would never take advantage of it like this woman had. It was why he insisted that Bonnie not mention the journal entry she found to anyone, though his siblings had shown up and read it for themselves.

"What exactly is it going to do?" Elena asked, her eyebrows perfectly weaving together. She turned back to face Kol.

Rebekah scoffed. "He's binding himself to the will of your sister, thus making him able to sense where she's going to be. It doesn't just make him able to sense her. It binds him to her, whatever she wants him to do."

"Like the sire bond?" she asked.

"Basically, yes," Elijah said. "That's the only kind of thing we have to compare this to."

"I know what I'm doing," Kol snapped.

"Do you?" Elijah asked, his eyebrows rising up on his forehead. A sarcastic smile pulled onto his lips, something that mirrored his disbelief. "Because an Original being sired to someone, anyone, sounds pretty dangerous to me!"

"What could Darcy make him do that you're so afraid of?" Elena asked.

"Anything!" Rebekah exclaimed.

" _Nothing_ ," Kol corrected, his anger at his siblings coming out strong in a single word. "She's Darcy Gilbert, for fuck's sakes! She's probably one of the kindest, most forgiving human beings I've ever met! She's level-headed and can see every side to a story, even if it's her own story! You don't know a damn thing about Darcy, so you can't for a second tell me that what I'm doing is a mistake! We have been presented with nothing short of a miracle, and you're all squandering about, worrying about what _Darcy_ might do with her power over me? I'm going to find the mother of my child before someone kills her and my child, and there's not a damn thing you can do to stop me!"

Klaus appeared behind Kol's body just in time to snap his neck, something that no one had been prepared for.

In the midst of their bickering, no one had noticed the sibling who wasn't in the room or what he was even doing. He had been waiting for the opportune moment, however. Klaus wasn't going to waste his breath arguing with their brother. He knew that he wasn't going to relent on this idiocy, wouldn't care to look for other safer solutions. He wanted to risk everything to have her now.

Elena let out a horrified gasp, jumping away from Kol's temporarily dead body with widened eyes. "W-What are you doing?"

The smile that Klaus gave her was smug, one of the only kinds of smiles that most had seen from him at all. "Don't worry, love. We'll find your sister another way."

"We need to find the daggers, at least one of them," Elijah said. "We should get Bonnie over here at once to do a locator spell on them. Something has to be done until we can locate Darcy to keep him from doing something stupid."

"He is right about one thing," Klaus said. "The sooner we find Darcy, the better."

"Sage and Finn are already out looking for her," Elijah reminded Klaus, which was actually news to Elena. She wondered if Kol even knew that. "Rebekah and I were going to set out first thing in the morning, after his test with the untriggered werewolf was complete."

"Wait, what?" Elena had kept herself out of the conversation until this point, but there was so much that the Originals were doing that she had been kept out of entirely. It was her twin sister, yet they were keeping her in the dark? "What are you doing with an untriggered werewolf?"

"What do you think we're doing?" Rebekah asked, her annoyance at Elena Gilbert dripping off her every word. "Nik doesn't want to know the answer to this, but the rest of us do. We like Darcy, in theory. She's done a few things to piss me off, but she's not you, so that's a plus."

"Kol wanted to test if an untriggered werewolf had to turn with Niklaus' blood," Elijah explained, giving Rebekah a stern glance that she ignored. "When she has this baby, he wants to turn her for everyone's safety."

"I'll get Bonnie to do the locator spell on the daggers, and I'll remain in town to ensure that he doesn't do anything stupid," Klaus spoke up, changing the subject back to a more pleasant one, at least to him. "In the meantime, Elena,"—He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her gaze into his own—"why don't you help me with that? If you spot Kol and Bonnie trying to attempt this spell, stop them any way you must. Go on home. This is a family matter now."

Elena turned away from Klaus, heading for the doorway of the kitchen and towards the grand entrance room without hesitation. She knew how to play the part of compelled well.

She had never been more grateful for the timing of one of her decisions, this morning being the first morning since turning that she decided to choke down some vervain.


	7. 06: Midnight

"I can tell that it's going to be a long road.  
I'll be there if you're the toast of the town, babe,  
Or if you strike out and you're crawling home.

Don't read the last page.  
But I stay when it's hard or it's wrong or we're making mistakes.  
I want your midnights,  
But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day . . .

. . . Hold on to the memories.  
They will hold on to you,  
And I will hold on to you.  
Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere."

 _New Year's Day_ : Taylor Swift

* * *

When I made the decision to leave Mystic Falls, I really hadn't thought a lot of things through, like where I might go or how long I might stay gone. The truth of it all was, maybe leaving wasn't the best thing to do. I could've helped take down Esther, and I could've made sure everyone was safe, Kol included.

I chose to abandon him instead, to make sure absolutely that our children were safe.

They were safe alright, safe and nestled into the makeshift cribs we had made in one of the hotel rooms we were staying in. Oryn and Ayven thought it would've been good to keep going, to not stop tonight, but it was very important that we stopped.

It was New Year's Eve. This was the start of a completely new year in my life, in Kol's life . . . and I wasn't there to celebrate it with him. It would've been my first New Year's kiss, but I had to leave town.

There was a way, though—a way that I could comfort him somehow, a way that I could make his life at least a bit better until I could get back to him.

I felt a bit bad for the cleaning lady in the morning. She would have a lot of salt to clean up, though we were going to scatter it around the room once we were finished so it wasn't so obviously in a large circle.

In the center of that circle was me, holding onto the vessel that Kol had given me. Shea and Prisca were standing just outside of the circle, dressed in their New Year's Eve party attire. They had gone on dates with their respective lovers, but all of them made sure to be back here for me.

How I got so lucky with the people I found, I'll honestly never really know, but I was very fortunate. They would never understand how much they all meant to me.

Their lips were moving in silent whispers, but my gaze didn't stay on them. It moved across the room, towards the alarm clock nestled by one of the beds in the room. We usually tried to keep the amount of rooms we got to a minimum, so we always got double bed rooms.

It was only a matter of moments now, and my heart felt as if it was trying to push its way out of my throat.

The fire in the candles set up around me blew out suddenly, and Prisca and Shea let go of one another's hands to look at me. Shea wore the softest smile. She had been the one to tell me about this spell, for the very reason I was sitting here doing it.

It wasn't so I could wish Kol a happy new year. It was so I could see him for the first time in over six weeks. So much had changed in my life, and I couldn't imagine what had changed in his. Was he growing violent? Was he trying to be better?

Had anyone died?

There were so many things I would want to ask him, but I had to remember what Shea said. My time was limited, as this was a powerful spell that could be traced if we did it for too long. Even with the cloaking spells on all of us, this kind of magic couldn't be ignored, not if we did it for too long. I had about two minutes, tops.

I had to stick with the basics—I'm okay. I love you. I will be home as soon as I can. Happy New Year.

"It's time. He's in Mystic Falls."

I stole another glance at the clock and saw that it still read 11:58. There was only so long it could stay on that same minute.

My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath to calm my excitement. This required focus from me as well. I had to focus my mind on Mystic Falls. I had to think about home, think about the place I had missed so dearly.

When could I go back there?

In the blink of an eye, my mind was snapped into focus, and I found myself standing in an unknown bedroom. The walls were painted a soft blue, with a hint of darkness in the tone that seemed suited for a Mikaelson.

That was where Kol was, sitting on the edge of the large bed with his face buried within his palms. There was a small table nestled near him with an open bottle of whiskey, but it was mostly empty.

"Kol."

The force in which his head snapped up to look at me probably would've killed a human, or at least hurt their neck. There were tears brimming on the edges of his eyes, but at the sight of me, they weren't able to hold back.

"D-Darcy?" He ran across the room at full speed, and the largest smile that I had ever seen from him spread across his lips. He looked at me sometimes with a smile that made it hard to believe he had done horrible things in his life; it was so beautiful, and it was such pure love. I didn't see how someone with dark tendencies could smile that way.

"I don't have long."

"What are you talking about?" he whispered, and one hand came to cradle my face, his thumb brushing across the skin of my cheek. The touch was simple, but it felt so magical. It was if everything was amplified with the spell projecting me here, but I didn't think it was the spell. "W-When did you get back?"

"I'm not back." I swallowed, hard, and closed my eyes. "I can't come back yet."

"How can I feel you then?" he insisted. "Your hair." His hands moved from my cheeks to fix the much shorter hair that was falling onto my shoulders, giving him a better view of the shorter length. "You have to be here."

"I'm not here," I said. "There's a spell that can put me here for just a couple minutes. I don't have long."

He shook his head and grabbed onto my face again, this time with both hands and much more insistence than before. It was no longer a delicate touch, but it felt good to feel his skin against mine again. "Darling, please come back. I know why you left. Please, allow me to protect you and our child."

Tears began to pool in my own eyes at the mention of my pregnancy, at the mention of belief and desperation to protect us all, but they were so bittersweet that they burned. "I should've known you'd figure it out, but I can't come home until I know it's safe. There's a coven of powerful witches looking for me, the coven my father was a part of. It's why I can't hold this for long. The clock's about to strike midnight, but I wanted to do this for you. I wanted to be here as the new year rang in. I wanted you to feel loved as the new year began so you had a year to look forward to for once. I don't want you to feel empty or alone tonight because I love you, Kol Mikaelson. Way more than I should at this point, but in the face of forever, what does time really matter?"

More tears rolled down his cheeks, and with a soft smile, I placed my hands against the side of his face. Using the tips of my thumbs, I brushed his tears away, only for more to quickly follow

"Darcy—"

I stole a glance at the clock on the wall, and it was midnight already. We had missed it, but it didn't matter; it was just a silly tradition, and who had to know what we didn't kiss at the exact moment that the new year rang in?

I closed my eyes and held my breath in an attempt to hold my back my sobs, and I was able to get control of myself, enough that I could breathe again to whisper, "Five, four, three, two, one."

He knew this tradition. It had been around long enough, I suppose, and he pulled my lips up to his, my body closer to his. Within the grips of his strong arms, I could feel the desperation. His lips moved against mine as if they hadn't spent any time apart, with perfect knowledge of just how to caress my lips with his own.

My fingers moved from his face to tangle in his hair, and his grip on my body tightened, like it might change the outcome somehow. The only thing it did was bring more tears to my face, even in the middle of the first kiss I had shared with him since I left.

He was alive. They hadn't killed him, and he was looking for me. Most of my fears when leaving were for nothing; he believed these were his kids, and he believed in me. Nothing had gone the way my paranoid brain imagined, so everything was okay.

More than the pain that I could feel in the way his lips moved, I felt the love. I felt the hope, and the fact that he was able to feel hope after this long, after many failed locator spells I'm sure, just went to show that Kol had changed. The time we had spent together took the emptiness that had been inside of him for so long and just made it disappear. It made him feel hope and joy and, unfortunately, genuine pain.

Feelings were hard, but they were worth feeling. It's what made life worth living, the roller coaster that was emotions and hardships.

Suddenly, I was alone. His arms were no longer around me, and his lips were no longer pressed against mine.

I was back in the hotel room, opening my eyes just in time to see Maisyn come up and kiss Prisca with the passion of two lovers who were so excited for the year to come, the year that would start their eternity together.

Sutton kissed Shea with a very similar passion, and it was beautiful. It was true love surrounding me. It was bittersweet sometimes, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

I was surrounded by people who understood, people who knew love well enough to know that it could change the world and give you strength in a way that a life empty of love couldn't.

Instead of feeling pain at the sight of two couples expressing their love, I felt joy for them because I had gotten my chance to do that, too.

Despite being away from him physically, it _was_ going to be a happy New Year—for everyone.

* * *

 **A/N: I swear, every time I try to update, there's issues with the site, like yesterday. I pick the worst days. Lol. At any rate, here it is! I have through chapter 14 done, and I'm currently brainstorming chapter 15, so I am keeping things moving. I'm just updating less frequently than I did with Flicker. If I ever get back on track and get where I can get a chapter a day, I'll start trying to upload a chapter a day as well.**

 **Thank you guys for sticking with this story! I'm so glad y'all enjoy it, and I hope you continue to enjoy it as the story comes to an end! I'm still not entirely sure how long that will be until it ends, but this _is_ the last part. Maybe in the future I'll come back and do a part three, but that's still not something I'm planning to do. Who knows? I may change my mind.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	8. 07: The Binding of Kol

"Don't recognize my reflection lately

Friends telling me that they're tryna save me

They keep coming 'round and telling me all the ways I'm changing

But maybe I need it, is that so crazy?

Got me opening doors when I didn't before

Feel my glass was half empty but not anymore

Used to love flying solo but now I'm not sure

'Cause now, when I'm doing my thing

I know who I'm doing it for

'Cause if I'm fighting, I'm fighting for you

And if I'm calling, I'm calling for you

Girl, if I'm dying, I'm dying for you

Because I've fallen, I've fallen for you."

 _For You_ : James TW

* * *

It had worked; the woman with the untriggered werewolf curse had successfully turned into a vampire with Rebekah's blood, and even when she made her first kill and triggered her curse, she just existed as a hybrid. She didn't die, didn't become unstable in any way. They had successfully made a hybrid without Klaus' blood or the blood of a doppelgänger.

That was only a small victory in the face of Darcy's continued absence that felt as if it had no end.

Everyone was sneaking around, doing whatever they had to do to make sure Klaus didn't know they were meeting. He had already threatened to turn Bonnie into a vampire if she put the spell on Kol that bound him to Darcy's will, but she didn't care if this was the last spell she ever did. She wanted to find her friend.

It wasn't like they were doing this to Kol against his will. He was more than willing, had been fighting to do so since they found the spell to begin with. There had been more fervor in his fight at the start of the new year, but Kol hadn't told anyone why. He felt her, could feel her skin, but he wondered if it was the alcohol and delusion.

But it felt so _real_. If it was an illusion, something his lonely and scared mind put on him to try and boost his confidence, to make him feel better, he didn't mind. It had worked brilliantly, and he was fighting harder than ever to bring the woman he loved, who was with his child, home safely.

Getting himself out of the mansion was easy enough during the day. Klaus knew that there were many celestial events, but he didn't account for the people of Mystic Falls to know. Kol didn't imagine that they had, but he sent a text to Bonnie when he discovered the one that day and asked if it would be enough.

Bonnie and Elena were waiting in the cellar of the Salvatore boarding house. If Klaus came by to look for them, he probably wouldn't have looked there, assuming some kind of trap might be set up for him.

That was a thought, but he probably had his hybrids looking out for something like that.

The night of the full moon that Kol was originally supposed to do the spell, where Klaus had found a way to betray his brother once again, Klaus spent the night breaking his neck over and over again until morning came and the power of the full moon was gone. When the super moon came, Klaus kept an even closer eye on Kol, not allowing him out of his room for the entire night. He had hybrids stationed everywhere, with orders to yell out if Kol tried to get out.

Kol was surprised by the amount of celestial events that people didn't even realize, however. They were almost daily occurrences, but he found the closest one that would have enough power to help with the spell.

On the morning of the January 4, there was going to be a meteor shower at its peak. The shower was a two or three day event, with its peak starting the night of January 3, but Klaus watched Kol extra carefully at night. It had to be morning, bright and early.

Bonnie was waiting for them in the cellar to get things moving for them as quickly as she could. She didn't waste any time with idle chatter either, and Kol was very grateful for that: Bonnie was definitely his favorite of her friends.

She pulled the strands of Darcy's hair that Elena had gotten from her hairbrush and reached over to place them carefully in Kol's hand. "I've already told you what this spell will do, and while Klaus has been delaying things, I looked into it even further. I don't think there's a way around this. It isn't bound to Darcy's life, so I don't even know that her turning will change it."

"I don't care if I have to sire myself to her for all of eternity if it means bringing her back safely," Kol said. "Please, Bonnie. Help me bring her back safely."

Bonnie didn't say anything, only nodded, and she pulled a blade out of the back of her pants pocket. It was a pocket knife, folded neatly and safely away until she clicked it open with ease. She pressed the knife into the palm of Kol's hand, the hand which held the strands of Darcy's hair.

In order to keep the wound open, which was necessary until the last few moments of the spell, Bonnie had to press the blade into his skin and leave it. The pain was in the back of Kol's mind, however, as the pain brought him one step closer to finding Darcy.

She held Kol's wounded hand up and closed her eyes, whispering the words of the spell that she had memorized by this point. It wasn't a spell she ever planned to do again, but she wasn't going to screw it up this one time. All the delays, all the hardships in getting to the point where they could actually do the spell had her alert and ready for anything.

She expected Klaus to rip the page out of the book, but he hadn't, at least not yet. Before leaving her house, almost at the crack of dawn, she had given it another good lookover, to make sure that she had everything right. Of course she did, down to the last thing they needed for the spell, but she wasn't going to take any chances of screwing it up.

The strands of Darcy's hair were all they had, only a few that lingered on her hairbrush. She was one to clean it off every time she used it, both as a habit that came from her hair's ability to shed more in a single day than most did in a month's time—she called it the thick curly hair curse—and as a precaution, with the supernatural stuff going on around them. Elena's hair had been used against her once, and Darcy didn't want the same happening to her.

Kol imagined that she was frantic when she left, maybe even barely remembering that brushing her hair was a good thing to do. It looked as if she had attempted to clean her brush but missed a few, and he was very grateful that she had.

This was their one shot, and no one was going to screw it up.

The candles set up around the floor of the room grew bright, the flames extending past the normal borders of a spell, but he had seen a few spells do flames that reached out that high, almost to the ceiling of the cell they were in. They were the more powerful spells, and there would've been wind instead of higher flames had they been outdoors.

Bonnie assured him that the spell could be done indoors, but it would take a bit longer to do. He agreed that it was safer to do indoors, so he accepted the longer spell, the greater pain in his hand.

His eyes were glued to the hair mixed within the blood of his hand, and he noticed when it began to dissolve within his blood, almost as if his blood had turned into some kind of acid. Bonnie told him that when this happened, it was normal. Her DNA, her essence, was just dissolving into his, making him bound to her.

That was why Bonnie believed it wouldn't go away even after she turned. He wasn't being bound to her life. Had she been around to use her blood for this spell, maybe it would've been different, but she wasn't. They were doing what they could.

Bonnie noticed the hair beginning to dissolve and removed the blade from Kol's hand, chanting the final words of the spell to seal it in and bind him to Darcy's will. She felt a bit guilty doing something like this, knowing the consequences of such a spell. Just like the man who had documented his journey after doing this spell in order to marry the woman he loved, it could end tragically, but she knew Darcy. She knew that Darcy wouldn't have made Kol do the spell to begin with, as that man's love _had_ , and the very idea that he was bound to her in such a way was sure to infuriate her.

Darcy wouldn't take advantage of it. If anything, she would work tirelessly to find the fix for it, if such a fix even existed.

Bonnie's eyes fluttered back open, only to find that Kol's had closed. He hadn't done it consciously, but the spell began to take effect, sweeping through his body and making the lids of his eyes exceptionally heavy. It wasn't putting him into a slumber, but his mind needed a chance to process the new change.

"It's finished."

There was something sweeping through Kol, coursing through his veins and leaving a strange tingling sensation that he couldn't explain. It felt very real, very much like the things that Darcy could make him feel inside with little to no effort. It was as if she was here with him, talking to him or simply smiling. She could just sit on her bed and make Kol feel these things.

She wasn't here, though, but Kol's mind began to wander, off to a distant place where she might be.

His thoughts were ripped away from Darcy's location by the sound of his phone ringing in the confines of his back pocket.

* * *

 **A/N: Let me know what you guys think!**


	9. 08: Back to Diners

"Well if you came home,  
You already know  
That I would be waiting  
Cause I have been praying  
For you to stay close,  
Under the light of the full moon.  
And if you can't stay,  
I'll wait for the day  
When you can be all mine,  
Stay up with you all night,  
So don't run away.  
I am your light. I will guide you home."

 _Come Home_ : Tonight Alive

* * *

There was something about small town diners that appealed to me. Maybe it was the vintage décor of most, like they had been ripped out of a magazine from a different time, or the kindness of the people who worked there. Most small town diners weren't in it for the money, and they hired kind people. It was much different from the chain restaurant scene, or the high money places I had been.

They cared about their service, about making you as comfortable as they could while serving you the food they love to make.

Of course, all small town diners weren't like this. We had come across a couple that were less than pleasant, but overall, the majority of them _were_.

The diner had a few regulars sitting around when we got there, all nine of us. There wasn't a table big enough, so we had two high chairs pulled up to place the twins' car seats in, and we spread across two booths.

It was getting pretty lonely, being the lone person sitting on one side of the booth by myself. I had the twins, of course, but it was still hard to process. It was crazy enough believing that I had conceived them, and then a month later, they were here.

Each day got easier to get a grip on the reality, but it was still a struggle.

I just wanted Kol beside me; the New Year's Eve spell we had done was meant to calm me down, to help me get through each day, but it did the opposite. It reminded me of what I left behind, reminded me that I still couldn't exactly remember why I had done that. It had been to protect myself from Esther, but Kol was willing to kill his mother. Had he known what exactly he was protecting me for, maybe his siblings would've done the same.

There was so much uncertainty surrounding the Mikaelson family, though. They were horrible to one another, brought on with the introduction of the daggers which they could use to control one another. Kol had found them and kept them hidden from them, aside from the single dagger that Rebekah had managed to get for herself, but what had changed?

Still, were they so horrible that they would've done something to hurt innocent children, the children of their brother?

"We can't keep doing this to them," Shea insisted. Her body was turned towards the table behind ours, looking to Prisca, Maisyn, Oryn, and Ayven. It was a bit harder to converse stretched across two tables, but we had done it before.

Prisca leaned her head back and let out a groan. "I know, I know, but what about Iris? You know as well as I do that she has the 'coven before family' mentality at this point. Coven comes before _everything_ , including morals."

"I can't do this much longer," I whispered, but the pain was harder to hold in than I realized. It churned more vibrantly inside of me than I thought, and it showed in the tears that threatened to fall. "I know it sounds crazy, and I know that it was only a month, but I've never felt so alone surrounded by so many amazing people. I have two children now, and I love them. I will do anything I have to do to protect them, but I'm pretty sure their father will, too."

Ayven sighed. "She's right, you know. He knows about the children at this point. What could going home hurt?"

"A lot of things," Maisyn said, her voice much sterner than anyone else's. She had had a harder time adjusting to being sired to Theia than the others did. She wasn't used to devoting herself to someone's safety so much, not even Prisca. She loved Prisca, but Prisca was a very powerful witch, more than capable of taking care of herself. Theia was an infant, only nine days away from being a month old.

I should've been thirteen weeks pregnant, but my kids were almost a month old instead.

"We can just find more werewolves to sire to each of them," Oryn pointed out. "You'd be surprised how many would be willing to be bodyguards to children if it means not having to turn every full moon."

I shook my head. "There aren't a whole lot of werewolves left, if you don't remember. Klaus made sure of that. He ended up killing a lot of werewolves out of stupidity and childish desire to be king."

"You underestimate how many live in secret," Ayven said. "We did. We heard about Klaus looking for werewolves, but he never found us."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Do you guys know any?"

"A few," Oryn said, and he rubbed his hand over his mouth. "We know where they go to turn on a full moon, but that's the only way to find them. They travel around like we used to—moving every night, never staying in the same place."

I sighed. "I still don't know. I mean, an army to protect them from whatever's to come sounds amazing, but I can't bring myself to force someone to do that."

"We didn't say force," Sutton reminded me. "We'll only turn the willing."

"Okay."

"That still doesn't answer the question," Shea spoke back up, her blue-eyed gaze still locked on Prisca's. "When can we let them go home?"

This was a question we almost always debated, with different answers and decisions all around. Each day usually brought a different response as well because the truth was, we didn't have answers. We didn't know when it was safe, if it would ever be safe, or if it was ever even dangerous to begin with.

My gaze drifted over to the car seats, with the covers unzipped and pulled back to expose the twins to the world around them. Most people said that you weren't supposed to get babies out until they were six weeks old, but we hadn't had that luxury. I hadn't really had time to think about whether I would've done that or not, even if I could've. All that mattered was that we weren't able to keep them locked away, and I wouldn't want to, not with them not having a stable place to call home.

This wasn't the life for them, the life they deserved. They were surrounded by people who were wrapped around their fingers, who loved them, but they didn't have beds to sleep in every night. They didn't have a place they could find comfort in, simply because they recognized it.

I didn't know when they would start to recognize their surroundings, but when that time came, they had to have a place to call home.

Theia's colorless eyes fluttered open, the light from the window burning them in a way that was sad but also cute, as her adorable little face scrunched up and reminded me of me. That was the irritated look, the one that Kol always mocked in a loving and endearing way. He said I was too cute to be scary, to be angry, and Theia had that trait as well.

With a smile, I leaned over and put my hand inside of her car seat, allowing my finger to softly touch the back of her hand. She responded to the touch almost immediately, moving her hand so that she could wrap her tiny little fingers around mine. The simple action was something a lot of people took for granted, but I wouldn't. It was followed by the sweetest smile, the kind of honey sweet that only a baby could give.

These were my two little miracles, and I would do whatever it took to give them the best life possible.

Most times, I would look up if the bell at the door rang, to signal its opening, but my eyes were locked on something much more important than strangers I would never see again. I didn't think about what I was doing, only reached over to grab my camera off the table, and I snapped a picture of Theia's sweet smile, turning my body just the right way to block enough light that it made for a good picture.

Theia was a bit of a show off, would always smile bigger when she saw the camera. There was no way she knew what it was, but she would make the cutest faces and smiles whenever I went to picture them. Alastor's face usually grew blank, his eyes almost empty. He didn't know what the camera was, but he didn't like it, not like Theia did.

Still, after snapping the picture of her, I turned the camera towards Alastor, getting a picture of him while he slept with the tiniest smile of his own, before his open eyes took that smile away. It wasn't that he didn't smile, but it was gone whenever the camera came along.

"Darcy."

The familiar voice snapped me away, jolted my body in an almost unfamiliar way. The camera in my hands almost fell to the floor, but the vampire standing not even five feet away from me caught it, for the moment not thinking about the world around him.

His eyes were locked on me, the chocolate eyes that were almost familiar. They weren't the same golden brown that I had fallen in love with, but they were familiar enough that I wasn't afraid of the man standing there, with a beautiful red haired woman hovering just behind him.

"Finn?"

* * *

 **A/N: So I'm delaying updates until I write another chapter, but I'm still stuck on 14. I'm working hard to figure out where I can go next, and I'll definitely figure it out before we get that far. I want to be at least five chapters ahead, just in case, but I figured I'd post another update even before getting chapter 15 done because it's been a while, and there was a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm so glad you guys enjoy this story! It means a lot to me to have so many people reading my story, and reviewing as well. This has by far been my best and most successful series yet, and that means a lot to me. :)**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	10. 09: The First Time in Weeks

"I'm going to the place where love  
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing,  
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.  
Well I'm going home,  
Back to the place where I belong,  
And where your love has always been enough for me."

 _Home_ : Daughtry

* * *

"W-What are you doing here?"

It seemed like a stupid question; it actually was a completely idiotic question. Kol had mentioned that he knew about my pregnancy, so he must've told his family, must had them all out looking for me.

"Sage and I were passing through this town, looking for you," he said, barely gesturing back towards the red-haired beauty with him. "It was by chance that Sage noticed the car that Damon said that you took with a Virginia license plate."

The Buick wasn't the only car that we drove around, but it was the most comfortable for myself and the twins. I didn't think anyone would find it, but it was probably crazy to believe that. They were probably scouring the country, knowing Kol.

"Please, Darcy," he continued, after he realized that I didn't know what to say. "Come home. My family and I will provide the best protection for you and your children anywhere."

"If you're a Mikaelson, you've got a huge target on your back," Maisyn spoke up, shaking her head defiantly. Ultimately, she knew that it wasn't her decision, but with her being bound to Theia, she was going to fight to protect her, in the same way Oryn would, or the same way that Ayven and Sutton would fight for Alastor.

"Please, Darcy," Finn said, ignoring Maisyn completely. "I missed a good portion of my brother's life, but I've never seen him like this. He needs you. He has to know you're safe. You can't keep running from the problem."

Of course he was right. Of course the same thoughts had been running through my head, paired with the questions of the choices I had made to begin with.

Why did I leave? It had been a stressful situation, with the panic of the Original witch wanting me dead, but looking back at it now, the safest place to be was surrounded by the immortal family of Original vampires.

There was no reason to stay away any longer. It was time for us to go home.

"Look, guys, maybe he's right," I said, and I allowed my eyes to peel away from him, over towards the amazing group of people that I had met along the way, people who were the kind of good the world needed more of. "You were just talking about siring more hybrids to them to better protect them. Who better to protect them than the Original family of vampires?"

"You know that I think that bringing these babies back home to their family is the best thing," Shea reminded me, and she reached over to tap Theia's nose, a large smile forming on her lips at the sound of her squeals. "We've given up a lot of stuff for the safety of these kids, our magic being one of those things. I wouldn't make a choice that I didn't believe to be the right one."

The reminder of what Shea and Prisca had done two nights prior made my heart sink; they became vampires, using the blood of their loved ones, but before turning, they willingly put their magic into my vessel so that I could access it, so that it wasn't completely lost with the transformation.

"We're bound to their lives," Sutton added on, looking over in the direction of the other three hybrids sired to my children. "We're bound to protect them the best way we can, and if I didn't think this was the best thing for his safety, I wouldn't agree with her, but I do."

Ayven's face twisted, her nose scrunching the most of anything. "Alright, alright. I can get on board with this if you can prove to me that you're not just here to hurt Darcy or the kids."

"I can do that," Finn assured her, and he reached into his back pocket, pulling out one of the newer Galaxy Notes.

It was all too obvious what he was doing, and the very thought of getting to hear his voice again, of getting the chance to talk to him . . . it hadn't been long since the projection spell, only four days, but four days was a long time when you paired it with the face that I hadn't seen him for almost two months prior to that.

So much had happened in my life, so much I wanted to talk to him about, but he wasn't around.

Our kids needed this; they needed a home and a family who would die for them.

Just like I needed Kol.

* * *

"I can feel her."

Kol hesitated for a moment, glancing at the name that had flashed across the screen of his phone. If it had been Klaus, he probably would've ignored it, but it wasn't Klaus. It wasn't a name he expected to see at all.

His eyebrows pulled together, his phone sliding across the green button to answer the call. "Finn?"

"We found her, Kol."

The words knocked the air out of Kol's lungs, hit him so hard that tears formed before his mind even realized that he was overjoyed. Of course he was overjoyed, but it was an overwhelming amount of emotions rushing through him, mixed with a dire need to see her again, to feel her skin underneath his fingertips, to know that she was safe.

"Bring her to me," he whispered.

His eyes darted over to the two women in the room with them, and he wasn't surprised to find tears within their own eyes. Elena could hear what was being said, but Bonnie was intelligent enough to figure it out for herself. She knew that when Kol teared up and smiled, she knew that Darcy had been found.

A breath passed through Finn's lips, and Kol imagined he was probably smiling. "Would you like to talk to her?"

"Please." His head began to spin, and the moments that passed while Finn shifted the phone over to Darcy felt endless.

"Kol?"

The sound of her voice, though distorted through the speaker of the phone, made Kol's heart feel as if it was going to explode inside of his chest. Love burned through him more powerfully than he had once thought he would feel for someone, with relief burning as a bright afterthought.

"Darcy, my love, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm okay." She let out a breath of a laugh, and Kol's heart grew three sizes.

"How is our child?" he asked, but the word still felt foreign. "Do you know when you are due?"

"Children," she corrected softly.

He let out a breath, but his smile grew wider without thought. "They're twins?"

"A boy and a girl," she agreed. "And it's kind of a long story, but they're already here."

This was a bit too overwhelming for Kol, the fact that he was talking to his love who had been found safe and sound and hearing that she had already given birth to the children that he barely knew existed. "Please come home to me."

A soft breath sounded through the speaker, and Kol wondered if her face was twisted with guilt. The breath alone sounded guilty. "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"Because I miss you far too much to be mad at you." He knew that he could stand there talking to her all day, but he would rather hold her without a time limit, feel her skin on his and know that she was really there with him, safe and sound. "Come home, darling. We'll figure it all out together, okay?"

"Okay." He heard the sniffle on the other side, but he imagined the tears were happy ones, with the joy dripping off every word that passed through the speakers. "We'll be home soon. We're not too far away."

"Wonderful." His tongue slid across his lips that had grown dry, and they curled into a much brighter smile. "I love you. Be safe."

"I love you, too," she breathed. "We will."

He refused to say goodbye to her now, so he took that moment to hang up the phone. She would understand; she understood his aversion to the word, and of course it made sense to not want to say it at this point. They had made it this far without saying goodbye to each other, and he wasn't going to start now that she was coming home to him.

Bonnie and Elena had their arms wrapped around one another, with floodgates of tears pouring down each of their faces. Kol imagined his smile was as bright as theirs, and he allowed himself to be overwhelmed for a moment. His legs felt like they might buckle, so he knelt down. A single hand rubbed over his face to try and dry his tears, to try and wrap his head around this moment.

She was coming home. She wasn't far, probably a small diner in Camden, South Carolina—

His own thought process froze, the seemingly random location taking him by surprise and knocking the breath out of him. What made him believe she was in a diner in Camden, South Carolina?

He sent a text to Finn, requesting to know where they were, and then he focused back on the two women around him, the women who were now looking at him with huge smiles.

"We did it, Kol!" Elena exclaimed, and she wiped the tears away from her eyes, sniffling a bit. "We're bringing her home, and my niece and nephew I hear? With everything going on, I'm not surprised they're already here."

"They're already here?" Bonnie asked, her eyes widening in surprise. "That sounds like magic of some sort."

"I'm sure it is," he agreed, and he rubbed his hand over his mouth, trying to focus his thoughts. He paused, the ringing of his phone in his pocket reminding him that he was trying to understand.

 _Some diner in Camden, South Carolina I believe. Why?_

"It worked."

Bonnie and Elena stopped all movement. They had forgotten for the moment that they had just done a spell on Kol, that they had bound him to Darcy's will so he might know where she is.

Kol glanced to his phone, looking at the text from his brother, and his eyebrows furrowed. "I, uh, I was thinking about how she would be home soon, and I got the thought that she wasn't far away, that she was just in a small diner in Camden, South Carolina."

"Did Finn tell you that?" Elena asked. "I didn't hear him."

"Because he didn't, not until the thought had already happened and I asked." He held his phone out towards Elena and Bonnie, whose eyes grew wide the second they saw the words from Finn. Kol hesitated, rubbing his hand over his mouth once more, and he took a deep breath. "Let's keep this to ourselves, okay?"

"We need to tell Darcy," Elena disagreed. "She might accidentally abuse the power without realizing it."

Kol felt the breath pass through his lips, and he smiled a bit, with some amusement behind the smile. He knew Darcy wouldn't find this funny at all, but he loved the irony of it, the timing. He did the spell to bind himself, and almost the moment it was finished, he got a call telling him that she had been found, that she was coming home.

A part of him wondered if this was his first step towards finding peace, towards becoming a better person. He had bound himself to her in a way that most likely couldn't be reversed. That was okay; she was a good soul with a huge heart, and he couldn't imagine a better person to bind himself to, to bind his will to. She would hate it and probably scour every inch of the earth to reverse it, or at least she might have before.

This experience had changed Kol, and he could only imagine she had changed as well. She was a mother now, and Kol learned now that he was already a father. His child _ren_ were here, and that changed a person, at least when they were face-to-face.

Life was going to change, and Kol had to prepare. There was so much to be done in the short time it was going to take them to get to Virginia, and he knew that he needed to start right away.

First, he had to ensure Elena and Bonnie kept this to themselves, that he allowed him this secret from the woman whose heart was bigger than the state of Virginia itself.

"Maybe being bound to the will of a good person will be my first step towards redemption."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so I wasn't gonna update today, but then I got three or four more chapters outlined and another one actually written, so I was too pumped about it not to update. :D**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!**


	11. 10: Reunion

"My heart is made of wax  
Just like these wings I've fixed  
I strapped them to my back  
Doomed from the start of it  
You're the sun in my sky  
Can't seem to reach you still  
I keep on flying high."

 _Catching Fire_ : The Score

* * *

I absolutely could not contain my excitement at the sight of the "Welcome to Mystic Falls" sign on our way into town. The twins were deep enough asleep to not even notice me, and I was grateful for that at least.

"You guys wouldn't even believe how beautiful this town is at Christmas!" I exclaimed, and my eyes widened. "It sucks that I missed it, but oh well! I'm home now!"

Sutton and Shea were the two in the Buick with us today, and they both started laughing from the moment I started to squeal. The more I began to ramble, the harder they laughed. Shea got a grip on herself faster than Sutton did, however, and she looked back at me, her lips curled into a smirk.

"Who are you most excited to see?"

"What kind of question is that?" I asked, but it made me breathless regardless, even if it was a question I didn't want to even think about answering. "I'm excited to see everyone! I've missed them so much, and so much has happened. You know, I kinda forgot that they might be mad at me."

"Pretty sure they've probably gotten over it," Sutton assured me. "It's been a crazy couple months, but I doubt they'd hold a grudge through all of this."

He was right about that; it _had_ been crazy, and my friends held grudges against truly horrible people, such as Katherine Pierce or Klaus. I tried not to, as I could see all side of the story, but my friends did.

They probably wouldn't with me, though, or at least not more than a good scolding would get rid of.

"The red and green of the town is magical," I said, changing the subject back to the Christmas decorations. "For a small town, it's decorated like crazy."

There wasn't much more to say after that, but my heart was soaring inside my chest. With each familiar house, with each passing moment, I grew closer to the very place that I wanted to be.

This was it; I was coming home to everyone: Elena, Kol, Jeremy, Damon . . . everyone who had fought so hard to protect me these past couple of months, to find me . . . I was being reunited with the ones I loved, introducing them to the children that I had been blessed with.

The street Sutton turned onto was far too familiar, the same street that I had lived for all of my life. I had never been away from it for more than a couple of days, usually only on lake house visits, but the time away didn't matter right now.

Right now, all that mattered was that I was back.

Sutton pulled up against the curb, and it felt like waterfalls began to drench my face. Before Kol came into my life, crying wasn't something I did very often, and for the first few weeks of normalcy, I didn't do it much then either. I was happy, without a care in the world.

Since then, I had cried more in a couple short months than I had in my entire life combined, and I didn't imagine that was gonna change anytime soon.

The front door of the house ripped open before I could even scramble to my own door, but my feet found the ground. At the sight of my sister, the sister who I had missed more than almost anyone, it was all I could do to breathe. The corners of my lips hurt, the smile turning up higher than I remembered in recent memory.

In an instant, Elena was in front of me, wrapping her arms around my body a bit tighter than she used to be able to do.

The breath felt as if it was knocked out of me, but my lungs quivered. It took less than a second to understand what had just happened; Elena had used vampire speed to run over to me.

The tears that fell were no longer tears of joy, and my body shuddered, the lack of oxygen tearing through me. "Elena?"

"It's okay," she whispered, and she pulled away from me so that she could look into my eyes, to allow me to see the genuine smile on her lips and the tears in her own eyes. "I've come to terms with it. Jeremy's talking about becoming one, too, along with Alaric."

"What?" This was becoming too much to process at once, especially in this moment.

Jeremy made his way next to us about that time, wearing a massive smile of his own, and it almost looked like I saw tears in his shining eyes as well. "We can discuss all this later, some other time. Get over here, Darc, before I kill you for running away like that."

I didn't hesitate to do exactly what he said, and the strength of his grip, of his embrace, was something that I had dearly missed. Jeremy had changed a lot over the years, but one thing I always loved was hugs from my baby brother. Somehow, I always felt safe and home, and home was the place I wanted to be more than anywhere else. I could've gone anywhere in the world, but I would've chosen here.

The sound of the car doors closing behind me ripped me away from the moment, and I turned back to the two people currently in the process of unloading the car. They were already out, already digging through the back to get out the two car seats that took up pretty much all of the room back there.

Elena and Jeremy's grew wide almost at the same moment, their gazes locked between Shea and Sutton. Not much had been said, and I didn't know what Finn had reported back to everyone. Apparently he hadn't mentioned that I wasn't alone, or maybe he mentioned it but they didn't expect them to follow.

They would see who these people were soon enough.

It was only a few seconds before Jeremy and Elena both realized what they were pulling out of the car, what was in their hands, and tears fell down Elena's face faster than I had ever seen when it came to tears of joy.

It had been a long three years for us, after losing our parents just before junior year, and then the supernatural world almost destroyed what remained of our lives. Then I met Kol, and life had gotten good for me, despite the struggle of the people around me. After that, things got crazy, but it was the best kind of crazy, the best miracle we could've ever dared to hope for.

Jeremy's tears actually fell down at the sight of the car seats, and I took that as my cue to tell them all about the bundles of joy I had brought with me, that I had given birth to almost a month prior.

I was a mother.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet Alastor and Theia Mikaelson," I said, rather proudly, and I gestured to the appropriate car seat with each name. They were still covered, hidden from the winter air around them, but I didn't let that stop me from introducing my brother and sister to their niece and nephew.

Elena reached forward and practically snatched Theia's car seat from Shea's hands, and she carefully unzipped the cover, revealing the tiny little beauty that rested inside.

She covered her mouth with her free hand. "She looks just like you . . . like us."

Jeremy took the car seat that Sutton was offering out towards him, and he, too, removed the cover to see the baby inside. A breath of a laugh passed through his lips, and his eyebrows rose. "This little guy looks just like Kol."

I nodded and grinned rather triumphantly at my siblings, who were too lovestruck for the moment to even notice me. "Yeah. There's a bit of both of us in each of them, but we definitely have to claim them."

The door to the house pulled back open behind them, ripping my gaze from my siblings at the sight of the sort of adopted sibling that I had picked up over the years. As it turned out, Jeremy was an adopted sibling to me as well, but we grew up together. Damon came along at the worst time in my life and made me feel happy again, in the way only a big brother could.

And there he stood, the setting sunlight reflecting off something that looked like tears in his piercing eyes, a small smile pulling its way out onto his lips.

I let out a shaky breath and stepped past Elena and Jeremy, who barely even noticed the movement. My feet weren't moving as quickly as they could've, but my steps were fast, doing what I could to get my arms around him.

He met me halfway and gripped me against him so tightly that I was afraid I might crack, but he relented a bit, probably remembering that I was breakable. Or maybe he hadn't known that I was still human and figured it out quickly.

"I was so scared," he whispered, and he brushed some hairs that had fallen from the ponytail I had put my hair into behind my ears, allowing his hands to linger against my skin. "When we couldn't use locator spells to find you, when they weren't working, I was so scared that something had happened to you."

Damon was one to react in the face of fear and panic, usually in a bad way, and to know that I had scared him that bad hurt me. I should've expected it, but I never really thought about how it might affect him.

Kol, on the other hand . . . I just hoped he was okay.

"It's okay," I mumbled, and I did my best to smile. "I met some people along the way who protected me." My brow scrunched. "There's so much we have to catch up on, but first . . . where is Kol?"

The tears disappeared from Damon's eyes, and a line formed at the bridge of his nose. There wasn't much emotion in his eyes so suddenly, and that was more horrifying than if he had told me that something had happened to him.

What was going on?

I turned away from Damon and took off back towards my siblings, ignoring the car that pulled up, full of the other companions I had made over the time gone. "Guys? Where is Kol?"

Jeremy took a deep breath and tore his eyes away from Theia, who he had gotten from Elena and given her Alastor. "He's at home. His siblings won't let him leave the house right now. We'll take you to him."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"We'll let him explain everything," Elena assured me, and she ripped her gaze from Alastor to look over at me now, too. "Trust me, Darcy. It's better if he tells you."

Sutton opened the door to the Buick without question, but I didn't move from where I stood, didn't shift my gaze. My face was scrunched, my brows more than any other part, and it was becoming increasingly hard to breathe.

What in the hell was I missing? What was going on? He was clearly okay and breathing, but why were they all acting so weird?

Had he done something bad?

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, seriously guys, I was just writing chapter 16 and crying. It's not sad, but in my head, it was super freaking cute. I hope it comes across in my writing, too, but seriously? I just . . . oh goodness.**

 **Anyways, yay! She's home. :D I promise I don't keep her from Kol long. There were a million different ways I thought about doing this, one of which was his family keeping her away from him because of what he had done, trying to find a way around it, but then I was like, Nah. I'm not doing any of that. For once, Kol gets to be happy.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	12. 11: Careful

"Nobody knows you the way that I know you.  
Look in my eyes. I will never desert you.  
And just say the word, we'll take on the world.  
And it's the fight, and the fight of our lives.  
You and I—we were made to thrive.  
And I am your future, I am your past.  
Never forget we were built to last."

 _Take On the World_ : You Me at Six

* * *

The last time I had been at the Mikaelson mansion, it was the night of the ball, the night that I left town. It had been the last time I had seen Kol in person, for two months. There was that spell on New Year's Eve, but it was so short that I hardly counted it as seeing him.

The two minutes or so was everything I needed to remind me that I needed to get back home and properly reunite with the man that I loved. It had been a little boost that got me through the next few days, but now I was _here_ , just at the brink of twilight.

Elijah and Rebekah were both waiting outside to greet us all, not even flinching at the sight of three cars pulling in one behind the other. I was in the Buick at the front of our little convoy, with the twins of course, with Jeremy and Elena riding in the front seat as well. The people who had been traveling with me came along, but they planned to give everyone their space, the space to unite with the newest members of each family.

The Buick was the only car Rebekah or Elijah even seemed to care about, and at the sight of me climbing out, having to squeeze my way past Alastor's car seat, it looked as if tears filled their eyes.

Elijah and I had been friends once, though we hadn't spoken since I let them out of the coffin other than the night he helped me get away from Kol. Rebekah and I had been friends once, too, though we were on somewhat rocky terms after she learned of my relationship with her brother, learned that I had kept so much of it a secret from my family.

She probably believed that it was out of shame, because I wouldn't want them to think I fell in love with a monster. She had no idea that it wasn't that at all. It wasn't that I enjoyed hiding who he was from them, but if they liked and trusted Kol, I could ease them into the whole "Original" thing.

Somehow, I even screwed that up, so she had every right to hate me. I had hurt her brother in a lot of ways, none of which were ways I ever planned to do. Hurting Kol was the absolute last thing in the world I ever wanted, yet I had done it twice in one night, in seriously heartbreaking ways.

Elena got out to get Theia's car seat out from the driver's side, and I unhooked Alastor's. It wouldn't be too long before we had to get different car seats, but for right now, these were the best we could do, with them still being less than a month old. It protected them the best way that I knew how.

Elijah was the first to step forward, though tears were falling down Rebekah's face at a much more accelerated rate. His eyes were bloodshot, tears brimming the edges, but there was a kind, massive smile on his lips.

He reached a hand out for the car seat in my hands, though he hesitated. "May I?"

"Of course," I murmured, and I passed it over to him with a rather wry smile. "It's your nephew, after all."

It looked as if my words had hit him right in the gut, knocking air right out of his body, but his smile remained, growing wider than I knew it could as he peeled away the cover of his car seat, carefully.

Elena had given Theia over to Rebekah by the time I turned, but I had missed the interaction. They absolutely hated each other, and I didn't imagine that would change any time soon.

At this point, however, they were kind of connected. They were both aunts to Theia and Alastor, and one way or the other, they would have to learn to tolerate one another. With what had to be coming, we all had to be able to communicate, to work together without question.

It was nice to see Elijah and Rebekah in this moment, seeing their niece and nephew for the first time and seeing the way they both appeared to be overjoyed, but there was someone missing, someone who I had thought would be waiting at the end of the driveway.

Yet he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Where is Kol?" I asked, and it helped me remember that something was wrong. Something had people nervously fumbling about, refusing to talk about Kol or what might've happened while I was gone.

Rebekah and Elijah both exchanged rather wary glances, but Rebekah was the first to look back at me. "Darcy, please be careful right now."

"Careful?" I asked, and my eyebrows rose. "Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"We've agreed to let Kol tell you, when he's ready," Elijah said, and he gave me an almost apologetic smile. "Right now, just . . . choose your words carefully."

This was becoming too much, but there _was_ comfort in the fact that his siblings weren't mourning him. Something had happened, something that scared everyone, but Kol was alive. He was still breathing, and he wasn't indisposed by Klaus' choice.

I barely made it through the doors before my eyes found him, standing at the top of the staircase. Has your world ever been shaken in a single moment? Before, it had been spinning, and I had been getting through each day with a smile because I was spending the days with my children, with the beautiful miracles that Kol and I had created.

But he was here. A single moment of seeing him in person knocked my world off its axis, and my mind raced with a feeling of completeness filling every part of me in just one moment of seeing him.

He looked better than I had imagined he could, not the unkempt mess he had been a few nights prior. His hair was trimmed again, his face absent of any scruff that had grown during the time where he just didn't care. He was back to the perfection of Kol Mikaelson, well dressed with a bright light in his eyes that had been missing just three days ago.

Breathing was impossible, but I somehow had to do so, remembering that there were two babies out there who needed me alive. I took a single step forward, but that was all it took to break him out of his frozen state.

He was in front of me in an instant, and his arms wrapped so tightly around me that I think he forgot I was breakable. It was only a moment of too much grip around me, and it only relented enough that it didn't hurt anymore.

Tears were soaking through his shirt before I even realized they had fallen down my face, but they were happy tears, the best kind of tears. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, you have no idea how much I wanted to be mad at you, darling," he whispered, and his lips pressed against the top of my head. "I'm just relieved you're safe. I've been trying to do research, but from what I've gathered, childbirth really has a profound effect on your body. We should get you upstairs, let you rest while—"

I stepped out of his grip and put a single finger on his lip, my smile widening further at the sight of his visible concern. "Thank you, Kol, but I'm fine. Vampire blood does wonders."

His eyebrows pulled together, though his smile remained. "Vampire blood? Darling, what have you been doing?"

"Lots," I sighed, and I took a single step back away from him. "But think about it, Kol. I'm a werewolf and a witch. You are an Original vampire who was a witch once. The twins . . . they have vampire blood."

"What does that mean?" he asked, but all traces of joy were disappearing, with confusion rippling through him so vibrantly.

"It means that our children have the power to create their own hybrids, with their own blood," I said. "It means that they're alive and somewhat human, with blood that can heal people, and when they die, they will wake up as a vampire. There are a lot of unanswered questions, so many unknowns, but all that matters is that they're safe. They're here, and I'm okay. I'm more than okay, really."

"Where are they?" he asked, and his eyes immediately moved towards the door.

Almost as if they heard the conversation we were having, Rebekah and Elijah came through the doors, still carrying a car seat in their hands. Unlike Elena and Jeremy, they hadn't swapped car seats, and I imagined they were taking more time to look at the niece and nephew in their hands.

I could almost feel Kol stiffen beside me, and one glance was all it took to realize that he was, in fact, anxious. There was a smile on his lips, but it looked a bit forced.

"I, um, I didn't prepare myself for this part," he admitted, his voice soft.

I turned back to face him fully and allowed a large smile to dance its way onto my lips. It had the effect I hoped it might; Kol visibly relaxed, and his smile didn't look so forced anymore.

I reached out to grab his hand, lacing my fingers around his, and took a single step backwards, towards the growing crowd of people in the doorway. "They're everything you could even imagine and more."

That gave him a bit of a confidence boost, boost enough that he, with his hand still laced with mine, was able to approach the car seat in Rebekah's hands, pulling back the pink cover to reveal the youngest of the two.

The smile that grew was more than I ever expected, paired with the tears that began pooling in his eyes. It was the kind of smile you would expect a father to have when he saw his child for the first time, but it wasn't anything I expected Kol would be able to give, not with all the chaos and uncertainty around it all.

"You didn't have much choice but to be beautiful, did you, little one?" he whispered.

"That's Theia Elaine Mikaelson," I informed him, and his eyes darted away from her for a moment, a bit of a wry grin twisting its way out. "I guess we can talk about different names if you want, but—"

"It's perfect, Darcy," he interrupted, but he allowed himself to look away from Theia, over towards the second car seat.

Elijah pulled the cover back for him, and he saw the very thing I had seen from day one, the thing that Jeremy had noted when he first saw Alastor as well. Rebekah, now able to get a glimpse of him as well, gasped loud enough that it almost ripped Kol's attention away from his son.

"And this is Alastor Kolby Mikaelson."

"I really hoped that this wouldn't happen," Rebekah groaned, but the smile on her beautiful face made it far less convincing. "His ego is large enough as it is, and you've named the angel after him as well. You have doomed us all, Darcy."

Kol took a step back from the car seats and let go of my hand. I got just the briefest glimpse of the overwhelming joy and fear in his eyes before he rubbed both of his hands over his face. I wasn't entirely sure what he hoped to accomplish with that, but as they fell back by his side, he seemed a bit calmer, a bit more ready to face what he was looking at.

It had to be overwhelming for him, in so many ways. He was an Original vampire, never thought twice about kids because they weren't possible for him. Yet here they were, too obviously his for him to even try to deny what was real.

It had been a roller coaster ride for me, going from a pregnant woman to mother in four weeks. They were in there for a total of ten weeks, but I was barely six weeks when I found out that I was pregnant. That gave me four weeks to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be a mother, that Kol and I had somehow conceived a child.

No matter when he found out that I was pregnant, he never imagined that he would get to meet them so soon. He never could've prepared for his children to be almost a month old when we came back into town.

There was a bit of rustling in one of the car seats, followed by the softest cry. It was Theia's cry. Neither of them cried much—we were very fortunate in that aspect—but I had still learned the different sounds of each cry.

I saw panic in Kol's eyes when he looked to her, but I didn't linger on that, though I found myself grinning. Instead, I moved over to Theia's car seat and began to unfasten her straps.

Her arms were so tiny and delicate. So many times, I feared hurting either of them in some way, but I hadn't yet.

Her cries stopped when she felt me moving her to get her out, and her little eyes began to open. At the sight of me in front of her, she began to smile in her own cute and adorable way, and I could almost hear the people around me melting into a pile of goop on the floor. Maybe it was the gasps or muffled squeals around me, but they all noticed.

I had read up on how to hold a baby, studied it so carefully that it became something I wondered if I could do in my sleep. I didn't want to risk hurting them, with everything going on surrounding their birth. I knew to hold their head with some part of my body, whether my arm or my hand, and I knew how to cradle them into me.

As far as I knew, Kol didn't know any of that, but the tears that he had been trying to hold back before came trickling down when he saw me holding her myself, saw me holding our daughter.

Seeing him cry was something I absolutely could not handle, not paired with the rush of being home again. With tears of my own falling down my face, a smile wider than the state of Virginia, I stepped closer to him.

"Do you wanna hold her?"

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so, I haven't gotten chapter 17 started yet, but I got two reviews last night that were so incredible that they brought me to tears. I'm still smiling as I write this, so I decided that I was gonna update today, whether I finish chapter 17 or not.**

 **You guys are all so amazing, with your reviews and interest in this story. I didn't know how it was gonna go over, with the baby and everything, but I decided to take a chance. So far, it seems to have paid off. I'm so glad you guys enjoy this story. It means a lot to me that you take time to read it and let me know what you're thinking, good or bad.**

 **There is one thing I need to clarify real quick. I have never watched the _Originals_. I absolutely plan to, but I don't get around to watching TV much. I still haven't finished _The Vampire Diaries_ , but I do plan to watch the _Originals_. As of right now, anything that happens in the story of the Originals isn't going to happen. I know that I brought in the gold dagger, back in the first part of this series, but it was something I learned when I was researching Kol heavily, to learn as much about him and his backstory as I could. As far as Freya and Dahlia go, they're not coming into the story just yet, but if I watch the Originals in the future and can figure out a way to make a story of my own with that plotline, without making an almost exact copy of the story that goes on in the Originals, that might be a part 3. I don't know yet entirely. I may start watching it now just to figure out if I can take it somewhere.**

 **The point is, as of right now, they have no plans to go to New Orleans, and there are no plans to introduce Freya and Dahlia. As I said, that is subject to change, but we're just gonna have to see how it all plays out.**

 ****Edit: Just working on the outline some more, and there is a plan to go to New Orleans towards the end of the story. If I can play it around right, there may be a third part to this story yet.**

 **Also, I do apologize if you were expecting a much bigger reunion. I played out a bunch of different things, but this one felt right to me. I hope you guys aren't disappointed.**

 **To wrap this up, thank you guys so much for reviewing. The future of this story is still kinda up in the air, but as of right now, it's only gonna be two parts. If I can figure something out before the end of this one (it will completely change the ending if they _do_ go to New Orleans) there may be a part 3.**

 **As always, read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	13. 12: A Kiss

"Once I had a little taste.  
Now I'm addicted to your fix.  
Oh, yeah, this time, maybe this time,  
Two wrongs make it right.  
We'll safety-pin the pieces of our broken hearts back together,  
Patching up all the holes until we both feel much better."

 _Safety Pin_ : 5 Seconds of Summer

* * *

Being surrounded by everyone that I cared about was something I missed far too much. Caroline, Bonnie, Alaric, and all of the people who had come with me on the road . . . Klaus was back as well, staring silently at me throughout most of my conversation.

He had been very vocally pissed off by the fact that he never found out that I had the werewolf gene, but Kol reminded him that had he known, he would've turned me, and Alastor and Theia wouldn't have existed.

That was the moment that Klaus got to see them, and he hadn't said a word since. He had been almost as overwhelmed as Kol had been at the sight of his niece and nephew. When he heard their names, there was some sort of recognition, like maybe he understood the meaning behind the names, specifically Alastor.

The past didn't matter to me anymore. All I cared about was protecting my children, so I was more than willing to bury the hatchet.

"Okay, so, let me get this straight." Damon cleared his throat and stepped away from the fireplace behind him, his eyebrows knit together seamlessly. "You run into a bunch of witches, who are distant relatives of your biological father, and they not only protected you and your children, despite the coven that you are all born into telling them to kill you, but they also sped up a process that was supposed to take nine months into four weeks?"

"Ten," I corrected, and I gave him a sheepish smile. "I was six weeks pregnant when we started."

"I don't mean to sound rude to any of you, but how did you know that you could trust them?" Elena asked. "You left town because of the danger. What made you so sure they were safe?"

"When Prisca walked into the diner, she knew who I was before she even opened the door," I said, and I shrugged my shoulders. "If she wanted me dead, I would've been dead without ever having to see her face. She's proven to me more than once how powerful she is as a witch, along with Shea. They could've easily killed all three of us but didn't. They actually helped me sire hybrids to each of them to ensure they were safe. I didn't just jump into this, trusting them with the lives of my children—which I should remind all of you that I left everything and everyone I had ever loved behind to protect their lives already. I was cautious, waited until I knew without a doubt that I _could_ trust them to let my guard down."

Prisca nodded. "We couldn't do what the coven asked of us. It was wrong."

"How did they know to find her?" Rebekah asked. "I know witches are powerful, but how could they possibly know?"

"Before your mother died, she contacted them about a doppelgänger siphon she had seen, and she mentioned that she was pregnant," Shea spoke up. "She told them that she would take care of killing her herself, but if she was to fail, she would leave it to them. To the Gemini, the worst thing you can be is a siphon, and add in the fact that she was having the kids of an Original vampire, and it was just something they decided couldn't exist. The Gemini are proud, if nothing else, and wanted to ensure that she was taken care of themselves, so they sent almost their best."

Caroline's eyebrows rose. "Almost?"

"Their best are being protected right now from a raging sociopath—the coven having to continue and all," Prisca explained, and she let out a short breath. "The Gemini coven is a strange one at that. The leader is chosen from a set of twins, born into the family of the leaders, and when they're twenty-two, the twins will perform something called a merge ceremony, forcing the two of them to become one. Whichever is the strongest will be the one whose body emerges from the ceremony, but they will have the essence of their twin inside of them. They had a set of twins within the our uncle's family, but one was a sociopath and siphon, so they had to banish him to a prison world—"

"Prisca, you're getting off point, and you forget that they know nothing about the Gemini," Shea interrupted, but there was a smirk lingering on her lips. She always thought Prisca's rambling monologues were funny.

Prisca cleared her throat. "Right. It's a long, complicated story that basically can be summed up into this: Shea and I were conceived to take over the coven when we were twenty-two. Our uncle ended up having another set of twins a year after we were born, so we were kinda the second-in-command back up plan if anything happened to them. Which makes us their second-best."

I glanced around the room to gather reactions from each person there, but somewhere along the way, I missed when Kol had disappeared. Honestly, a part of me wondered if I would have to use some magic to get him to get off of my side—except when I needed to pee or something, of course—but he wasn't in the room with us all.

Slipping away was easy enough, with everyone so fascinated with the history of the Gemini coven. Even the Original family hadn't heard much about them, which was probably because of how paranoid they were. Shea told me that the Gemini used cloaking spells to hide their homes, to ensure no one found them.

Kol could've been anywhere, but the first place I decided to look was the nursery that Rebekah had already begun setting up. She told me that Kol refused to let her do more than get them places to sleep, to ensure the nursery was what _I_ wanted, but they did have necessities, somewhere to sleep. That was where we had laid them down, at least until around one when they woke up hungry.

Everything on the Internet recommended feeding your children every two hours, but my doctor told me to never wake my children up to feed them. He had been compelled to help me deliver the twins, but the advice he gave after was the advice he gave any new mother. The babies will let me know when they were hungry, and it wasn't always the same time, but usually, one would wake up hungry, wake up the other, and the other would realize they were hungry, too. I hadn't fed either of them by themselves yet, though that would change as they got older and started eating things other than milk.

Kol was where I thought he might be, standing in between the two cribs that were no more than five feet apart. We hadn't had much chance to let them sleep separately, but all the traveling made them able, with the car seats keeping them apart. They nestled right into the comfort of their separate beds and stayed asleep.

"What are you doing up here all by yourself?" I asked, but I stepped further into the room, to get a better look at him.

"I'm not by myself."

His face came into view, and I saw with my own eyes the things he was seeing: his children. The tears from before had fallen down his face without restraint, and his eyes were clouded with both fear and joy, the kind of joy that only seeing your impossible miracle children could bring.

I let out a breath. "I know. It's a lot to take in. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it."

"This is more than I ever thought to even dream of," he said, but he tore his eyes away from them, over to find me. "I've never thought about whether I wanted children because it was senseless. It was impossible, yet here they are."

I nodded. "Here they are."

"And here you are."

"Huh?"

His lips curled into something that resembled a smile, though he was still very much overwhelmed. The smile was shining with the confusion in his eyes, so I knew it was there. "I always mocked Rebekah for falling in love, and I told myself that love was impossible for someone like me. Yet here you are."

My arms wrapped around his waist, pulling his body against mine in the best way that I knew how. "I love you, Kol. I'm so sorry for everything I did to hurt you."

"The pain was worth it, to see that the three of you made it out safely," he assured me, but he held me more delicately than the first time. Every tense muscle in my body loosened, melting into his warmth and security. I had been without that for too long, and it was crazy to think about the fact that I had been without it longer than I had actually known him, yet it didn't matter. I needed to feel his embrace. "I can't say that would've happened had you not left the way that you did."

My lips parted, allowing a soft yet unsteady breath to pass through them. "Your mom wanted me dead."

"Now she only wants our children dead," he said.

"I know."

"That won't happen," he whispered. "I swear."

"I know," I said again, hoping he might get the hint. We were on the same page here. Right now, the most important thing was getting them somewhere safe.

His grip tightened, making us feel more like one person rather than two. "You can't leave me again either. I don't think I can handle going through something like that again."

"That makes two of us," I promised.

His lips pressed against my forehead. "How can I love someone so much who I still haven't even begun to scratch the surface of who she is?"

"Look at it from my perspective," I said. "I love you like this, and you've got a thousand years of history and personality that I have to explore. I've got eighteen."

The way his lips found mine was as if there had been no time spent apart, as if this had been something that neither of us had gone a day without. I had made sure to kiss him on New Year's, but even that was different. It felt real then, but it _was_ real now. I was here, in the flesh, and here was where I would stay.

How the dance between two lips, destined to be pressed against one another, could go on without missing a beat, astounded me, but I let myself get lost in the feeling of our first kiss since I had gotten back.

I had missed this more than I even realized, and his kisses were one thing I thought about often. Still, my memory of this moment was fuzzy, no matter how precise I tried to make it. Memories of this kind of passion, this feeling, could never really compare.

The world around me was different, the sky torn open to reveal the endless galaxy. This was my own little piece of heaven that I never wanted to live without again.

And I wouldn't.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so, fun fact. There will 100% be a third part. I don't know exactly how it will play out, but they _do_ go to New Orleans. I have completely finished the outline for this part of the story, and if things don't change, there will be forty-five chapters, plus the prologue and epilogue. All in all, forty-seven.**

 **You guys are amazing. I was honestly scared this story was going to die, end in a way that didn't do the characters their due justice, but because of your continued reading, your continued encouragement, that won't happen. :) Thank you guys, seriously.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	14. 13: Sacrifice

"It's worse, worse than you think,  
If truth be told,  
I'll tell you that you're lovesick,  
I am sweet, so everybody takes a bite,  
Dig in, I'm the catalyst of your demise."

 _Take Your Breath Away_ : You Me at Six

* * *

This was it. The time had come to make a plan, a real plan. The reunion was over. Storytime was over. We were all acquainted enough that we could understand and agree that strangers or not, we were all on the same side of this fight, which could very easily turn into a full blown war.

I had only been into the Mikaelson mansion once before leaving town, and Kol and I had only been inside briefly. He had swept me off my feet, told me that he loved me, and I had left him behind, heartbroken and completely confused.

In so many ways, I was ready for this to be over. I was ready to have the plan in place, a safe place to raise our children, so I could take time and properly reunite with him. There were so many things I wanted to know, so many questions racing in my mind, but most of all, I just wanted to lay down with him and cuddle, to go back to a time where things were simple.

Everyone involved sat around the cozy den Klaus had built for his family, but it fit far more than that. We were all seated comfortably, with only Sutton and Shea sitting in the floor right next to the fireplace. They weren't uncomfortable; Shea was in his lap, nestled into his arms in the way she most preferred.

My eyes moved around the room, taking a long look at each person inside the room, and what I saw was . . . a room full of vampires, a room full of hybrids, and only one other person that remained human besides myself.

Alaric and Jeremy had both been turned not long after story time was over. I begged them to reconsider, to remember all that they had done as humans, but they were both very insistent that I let them make this choice, reminding me that I actually had no idea what was coming for my kids.

I couldn't stop them, in the same way that I hadn't been able to convince Shea and Prisca to remain human. That left only Bonnie and me, and how long would it be until she decided that it was safer for her to become a vampire, too? She absolutely didn't want that, was completely devastated when it was forced upon her mom, but was that in her future as well?

Prisca and Shea were powerful witches, so powerful that they helped me safely bring my kids into the world _thirty weeks_ before they were supposed to be born.

"Anyone who knows of the existence of little Alastor and Theia must prepare to leave town before dawn."

The room had been quiet, everyone lost in thought about where we might go now, but Klaus' words broke through even the deepest of thoughts.

"We can't do that," Damon spoke up, the corners of his eyes tightening towards Klaus. "Stefan wants nothing to do with this, remember? He's trying to get as far away from this family as he can."

"I hope he's off vervain then," Klaus said, giving Damon a pleasant smile, and his eyes began to shine with an annoying arrogance that locked the muscles in my jaw, ground my teeth together painfully. "I'll remove it from his system one way or another, but anyone who knows of these children must leave town or be forced to forget."

"Why do you suddenly get to call all of the shots?" Caroline scoffed. "I'm all for this, alright? Darcy is my best friend, and of course I'll die to protect those two babies! Seriously. Anyone who would want to hurt them is a monster, but we're four months away from graduating high school."

Rebekah snorted. "Right because in the grand scheme of _eternity_ , that's what matters."

"Just because it doesn't matter to you doesn't mean it doesn't matter to the rest of us," Elena said. "It wasn't just a short run for us. This was our life."

"Yeah, but, guys, come on," Jeremy spoke up. "This is Alastor and Theia we're talking about here. I know it sucks, but we did all agree to do whatever it took, even if it meant becoming a vampire or leaving town."

I rubbed my hand over my eyes. "Does it have to be right now, though? I mean, no one knows we're here. Anyone who might be a threat to us at this current moment thinks we're on the move, constantly running."

"You seem to underestimate the power my mother has even on the Other Side," Klaus snapped.

I stood from the couch, one hip jutting to the side as my eyes narrowed in on his, focusing my gaze within his own to demand his attention. "Let me make this very clear for you. These are my kids, and they're Kol's kids. I made the decision to forget everything horrible you've ever done to me, my family, and my friends. I've made the decision to let bygones be bygones for the sake of my children being surrounded by their family, but we need to get an understanding here. These are _my kids_ , and you don't call the shots when it comes to their lives. I do. Kol does. That's it. I came back to town for the good of my kids because they need their family and a _stable home_. We're not just leaving."

"So we make ourselves easy targets?" Rebekah asked, but her voice was soft, definitely not matching the rage that burned in Klaus' eyes brighter than the fire behind Shea and Sutton. "This _is_ your decision, Darcy, but I think you should consider that staying in one place is dangerous."

The fire, the darkness, in Klaus' eyes didn't relent, and it began to burn through my skin, charring every piece of me until only a withered and terrified soul remained. I didn't like being afraid of him, and I wasn't going to back down, but he scared the hell out of me.

He could get whatever he wanted; all he had to do was feed me his blood and kill me, and I would be sired to him until we figured out a way to break that sire bond,

Yet he remained where he stood, simply glaring down at me until I backed down—but he had no idea who I was anymore. Maybe the old Darcy would've backed down, would've submitted and let him do whatever he wanted, but I was a mom now. It wasn't like giving birth just suddenly changed me, but when it came to what was best for my kids, what I had to do for my kids, I wasn't backing down.

"Yes, but how can we constantly live life on the run?" Kol spoke up, and feeling his arm wrap around my waist as he stood up, giving me much needed support, was probably the best thing in the world right then. "Look, right now, we're at an advantage. Anyone who knows about Darcy's pregnancy believes it to be just that— _pregnancy_. No one is aware the twins are here except for us. That buys us some time, enough that I think four months is perfectly reasonable."

Prisca cleared her throat. "Not to be a downer, but anyone who is looking for Darcy and the twins knows that they've been born. I could get into the long spill about the how and the why, but all that matters is that the power of such an event, such a rare and infrequent occurrence that it's considered miraculous, is able to be channeled. Anyone who knows about the pregnancy knew to keep an eye out for this power to form, which happened the day that the twins were born. We used the power to help us stay cloaked, even after we turned. It put a cloaking spell on us that only Darcy could remove, but they still felt it. They still know that the twins are here."

"The Gemini have probably realized by now that we helped her have them early," Shea agreed. "So they're probably already aware that we didn't side with them in this war, especially if Iris already made it back to Portland."

"Iris?"

Elijah had been relatively quiet on the matter, but hearing Iris' name spoken seemed to catch his attention. His gaze shifted towards Prisca and Shea, where it scattered between the two frequently, before a shaky breath passed between his parted lips.

He was no longer silent, however, and his eyes began to cloud with fear.

"We met a witch named Iris, who bears a striking resemblance to the two of you," he murmured. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before, but she . . . she came to warn us about something Darcy had that could be our salvation or our downfall, insisting that we find her at once."

Shea stood from Sutton's lap, her phone already in hand, and she began scrolling through it, most likely looking for some picture of her sister. Her face was scrunched, a deep v forming at the base of her nose, but she didn't allow herself to react emotionally just yet, not until she knew for sure.

Elijah glanced at her phone when she held it out to him, and he nodded. "Yes. That was her."

Shea shook her head and tucked her phone back into her pocket, her soft eyes moving back over to find me. "I'm sorry, Darc, but we've gotta go, now."

It was hard to breathe in that moment, much less argue, and the worst part was, I knew that she was right. I couldn't fight to stay here, no matter how badly I wanted to do so. I didn't want to give up everything either. I didn't want to leave in the first place, and I had just gotten home . . . but Iris had made it very clear that she wasn't on the same side as we were. She didn't care if it meant killing a pregnant woman or murdering children. She was going to do what the coven asked of her.

It was why cloaking ourselves had been so important. That must've been why Shea and Prisca decided to use the power from the twins' birth to cloak us, to ensure that no one could have any sort of chance of finding us.

"Why does that mean we have to leave?" Elena asked. "What does your sister have to do with anything?"

"The cloaking spell ensured no one could find us through magic," Prisca said. "That doesn't hide us from being found in conventional ways. Finn was able to find us because he happened to drive past the diner we were at. If Iris wanted you to bring Darcy and the twins here, that means she was setting a trap to lure us here."

"If she's luring us here, that can only mean that _she_ is nearby," Shea continued on, when Prisca's eyes began to fall towards the ground. "That means the most powerful witches of the Gemini coven are either here, too, or they will be soon. We have to go. I'm talking no time to pack up. Grab the twins. We need to go _now_."

I shook my head. "N-No. Look, we'll leave tonight, but we can't just up and go."

"I'll . . . I'll go say goodbye to my mom," Caroline whispered, barely giving me a moment to see the tears that started to fall down her face. "I'll be quick. I'll tell my mom that I'm going to live a good life, that I want her to live hers here until I can come back."

Bonnie nodded. "I guess we should say bye to Matt, right?"

Damon's eyes moved over to the fire, watching with the intensity of a man trying to run from whatever emotions began to stir inside of him. "I'll tell Stefan goodbye."

"Oh, he'll come with us," Klaus disagreed.

It had been the first time that he had said anything since my demand that he shut up and let me take care of my kids, but it was just as infuriating as the last time he had spoken, though in a less obvious and arrogant way.

"Just let him live his life however he wants," I insisted.

Rebekah's eyebrows furrowed. "The last thing Stefan said to you was that Kol's death would be punishment for all the wrong that you had done, and you just want him to be let go? Just like that? What makes you think he's not mad at you, won't side with the other people in this war?"

"Because Stefan's not a bad person," I said. "He was just stuck on revenge, which is something I think that everyone here can relate to in some way. I don't think he would hurt me like that. We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but he's not a bad person."

"Do you want to know how our family has survived for all these centuries?" Klaus asked, and I watched his lips purse, his eyes narrow at the corners to focus in on me all over again. "We don't leave loose ends. Now, you call that monstrous because we kill anyone who might pose some sort of threat, but in the end, we're surviving. In the end, we're keeping these children alive, however we have to do that. Since Stefan and I were friends once, I'd hate to kill him, so instead, we'll bring him along for the ride."

"Compelling him—"

"Actually, Darcy, compulsion can be wiped away," Shea interrupted, before I could protest any further. "I've seen it done before. The leader of the Gemini can get into someone's mind and rip the compulsion away as if it was never there to begin with. I'm sure he can do it to a vampire, especially one who doesn't feed on human blood. Stefan's that one, right?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

Prisca shook her head. "The safest thing for everyone is for him to come along with us, at least until the Gemini are off of our backs. We told you that we were going to help you, no matter what it took, and this is what it's gonna take. Anyone who knows anything will be a liability. They have to come with us."

I couldn't take this anymore, couldn't take the things that were quickly making themselves a reality in my life, and I walked out. I didn't look back, didn't let anyone see the way that I had begun to cry.

I ran up the stairs and still didn't look back, even when I heard footsteps following behind me. I ran and ran until I reached the door of the makeshift nursery, but I didn't have the strength to open it anymore.

Holding back tears is draining, and I just couldn't do it anymore.

I fell to my knees, my hands wrapped around my stomach, and I sobbed. It was hard to be silent, with all the vampires downstairs, but I honestly didn't care all that much if they heard me.

They could judge me, call me weak, say whatever they wanted to say, but no one could ever understand how hard this was for me, how hard it was to face the things that everyone had to give up for the sake of my children.

Four people had become vampires for the good of my children. _Four_. How long would it take for everyone to decide that Bonnie needed to do the same?

How could I do this to the people I called family and friends?

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I'm back on track!**

 **At least for now. I really hope to stay that way.**

 **Every time I get a chapter finished, I'm posting a chapter, so I've decided to do at least one chapter a day, if time and my kid allow of course. He's a very energetic and lively almost two year old, so sometimes, I get a paragraph a day. But it's cool. Fun times. :)**

 **Anyways, the point is, each time I get a chapter, I'll post one for you guys. :) I got one done late last night and then one done again this morning, so two chapters in less than twenty-four hours. As I said, back on track. :D**

 **It might slow down towards the end, however, because I have to start watching the _Originals_. I've studied the stuff about Dahlia and all that, but there's so much you miss in summaries and things of that nature. I'm just gonna have to watch it.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	15. 14: Love You Right

"I don't know if you're ready to go  
Where I'm willing to take you girl.  
I will feel every inch of your skin,  
And you know I can rock your world.

Imma be the calm in the storm you're looking for.  
I'll be the shipwreck that takes you down.  
I don't mind if you lie in my bed.  
We can stay here forever now . . .

. . .Yeah, I wanna know you inside out.  
I'll spend my life trying to figure out.  
Just close your eyes and shut your mouth,  
And let me kiss you inside out.

I don't care if you steal all my air  
We can breathe in together as one.  
It's all right if you're here every night,  
Waking up with you in the sun."

 _Kiss You Inside Out_ : Hedley

* * *

Phoenix. We were moving to Phoenix.

Whenever I imagined leaving Mystic Falls, my dreams never went further than Tennessee. I never imagined that my life would bring me to Phoenix, Arizona.

That was where we were headed anyways; we were currently all holed up in a hotel in Denver. Despite every part of me hating myself for it, I gave Klaus one more bag of blood, to make hybrids he could sire to ensure my children were safe.

With one bag of blood, he made ten hybrids, and that, plus the four I had sired to the kids, we had a pretty good army gathering.

Fourteen hybrids, nine vampires, five Original vampires, and two witches . . . I wasn't going to taunt anyone, but I really dared someone to break through our line.

Actually, I'd much prefer nothing ever happen and we all get the chance to just live our lives, but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

Today was the first day since the twins had been born that I wasn't around them. The aunts and uncles had all decided that they needed a day to spend with their niece and nephew, and a day where they all needed to sit aside and remember how to put aside their past differences and remember what everything we had done was for.

It was hard to face, but I needed a day to myself as much as they needed a day with one another. I spent the first hour of my morning pumping, getting every single drop of milk I could get, and I did fairly well. I got two eight ounce bags, and that was just first thing in the morning.

I tried not to pump much, unless we couldn't stop and breastfeed. The pumps did a number on me, cracking the skin and making me bleed. With all the vampires around me, it wasn't such a big deal, but I was scared to ask for blood. _"Hey, guys, so I made my nipples bleed. Can I have some blood?"_

Kol wouldn't judge me. I guess I could just ask him.

I stepped out of the hotel shower, in the large room Kol and I were sharing—a twin pack 'n play in the far corner of the room—and barely took the time to dry my hair. It wasn't dripping anymore, and that was all that mattered before I grabbed the small towels inside the hotel bathroom and wrapped it around my body, before I accidentally caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I was pregnant with twins. My body had to expand so quickly, and I was fortunate that their vampire blood healed the stretch marks, but vampire blood didn't take away weight gain.

All of my life, I had taken pride in the way that I looked. I worked out hard to ensure that I maintained a fit shape. If my bland hair color and two different colored eyes separated me from the pretty ones there were, I was for damn sure gonna make sure I looked good.

I had to eat so much to sustain a healthy diet, with rapidly growing twins. I had to eat so much that I gained weight, around my hips especially. Dresses were all I could wear anymore because I couldn't fit into any of the pants I had back home. My thighs had gotten wider, my ass no longer fitting in the jeans that I had previously gotten on without issue.

And let's not even get into the bra sizes I had to go up.

Overall, it could've been a lot worse, but when you go from living your life one way, with barely any body fat anywhere on your body, to suddenly having fat that you could grab onto, hip bones that were no longer just bones . . . it was hard to adjust, and usually, if I saw myself in the mirror, tears would just pour down my face, worse than they did with the daily dose of raging hormones I got during my pregnancy.

There was rustling outside of the bathroom door, so I knew that Kol had gotten back from feeding. He mentioned something about robbing some blood banks as well, so I wondered if he had gotten what everyone needed or just what he would need.

There were a _lot_ of vampires, after all.

The idea of Kol being on the other side of the door, paired with the reminder that everyone had left us alone all day with a purpose—they wanted us to have a day for intimacy, a day to be together in all the ways that our separation had kept us apart. They wanted us to catch up, without fear of the twins waking up or anything going wrong. If something went wrong that they all couldn't handle, they had plenty of other people to call first.

It had been so long, and I once read that childbirth changes everything about sex and intimacy. Most doctors recommended six weeks, and it had been over four since I'd actually had the twins. The vampire blood changed all of that, got my body ready for anything.

Just because I was _physically_ ready didn't mean I was mentally.

How could I face him? How could I see the way his eyes distanced at the sight of my body the way that it was now?

Still, the idea of being touched again, of having Kol fill my body in all the best of ways, to feel his breath on my skin as he held me against him like there was no tomorrow . . . how could I keep myself from that anymore?

I did one final check on the towel, to ensure that it was tightly tucked under so it wouldn't fall off, and stepped cautiously out of the bathroom. I had no way of knowing exactly where Kol was, but I didn't expect him to be right outside the door, waiting. One hand rested on the back of his head, and his lips pursed.

His eyes found me the instant I stepped out of the bathroom. "Darcy."

Seeing the fire rip through the anxiety, bringing his eyes to an entirely different level of passion, my lips began to tremble with need, the kind of need that built up after two months of absence, two months of being without the very person that your body craved to the point of need . . . it was hard to swallow, much less breathe, and I knew Kol could see it. It was as if my own passions were reflecting within the depths of his warm eyes, and all I wanted to do was drop the towel and roll with them.

But then he would see, and I'd have to watch as his passions died.

"I-I should get dressed." Pushing my way past him, I stepped towards the bag of clothes I had brought up with me, mostly just stuff I had gotten on the road that fit and didn't make me want to cry—unless I remembered that it was two sizes up from what I had once worn, the pants anyways.

"Why?" He reached down to grab onto my shoulders, wrapping his arms around my torso to pull me back into him. His body was warm against my damp one, against the winter air fighting its way through the large double paned windows, despite the thick curtains covering them. "The twins are with our family. They're somewhere else. They gave us the day to ourselves for a reason, darling."

My eyes closed, the only attempt I knew to try and keep my thoughts focused on _why_ I couldn't do this. "I-I know. I was hoping we could . . . catch up."

"There's not much to catch up on, at least as far as what I've been up to." He pressed his lips against the back of my shoulder. "What's wrong, love?"

"Just leave it alone, Kol. Please." I took a shaky breath to stable myself, to get my mind focused for whatever attempt he came back with next.

But he didn't come back with anything.

"Alright," he whispered, but I felt his hands wrap around my arms, a grip so tight that I knew he was restraining himself.

I spun back to face him, one eyebrow raised, but he kept his gaze away from my own, looking anywhere _but_ my face it seemed. It wasn't the first time that I had noticed something strange about Kol, but it was the most obvious, the only time that I couldn't ignore the signs.

Did this have anything to do with the time gone? Was he so scared to lose me again that he decided it was better to just give me whatever I wanted?

It was too soon to tell, however, and right now, I just wanted him to see the truth. He needed to know that I was never leaving him again because with him was the safest our twins could ever be. With his mother out of the way, they were absolutely safest with us together.

I pulled his lips down to mine to distract us both from the tense aura of the room, but I hadn't really thought it through. Kissing him, allowing our lips to meet and ignite the passions burning within us both, served its purpose and then some. Suddenly, my body was pressed into the wall behind me with the towel slowly sliding its way down, with the guidance of Kol's trembling hands.

I grabbed onto the top of my towel and pushed him back from me, taking off for the bathroom again before he could get over the high of the fervent kiss. It was hot, hot enough that I didn't feel so cold anymore, but it didn't change the fact that we couldn't make love to one another.

How long was it going to take before I just decided that I couldn't take this anymore? He might be turned off by the idea of touching me after seeing my body, but how long would it take for me to cave and have him one last time?

Maybe I was looking too much into it. Just because he wasn't attracted to me much anymore didn't mean that we would never have sex again; our relationship wasn't based on sex anyways. We had a lot of it, but that wasn't why I loved him, and it wasn't why he loved me.

That was just the sweetest icing on top of the cake.

Kol stuck his hand between the door and the doorframe, keeping me from closing it all the way. "Darcy—"

"Please just don't, Kol." My legs felt rather mushy, and I found myself sliding to the ground, just out of his sight—unless he was looking through the mirror.

His breaths were heavy on the other side of the door, but aside from that, there was nothing. Most times, he'd push the door open and demand I talk to him, hold me close and insist that I tell him all the silly little problems going through my mind.

Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, I knew these problems were silly, but they were _my_ silly problems. They were problems that would one day have solutions, but until then, I wanted to hold onto them. I wanted to let them eat me away on the inside.

At least then I might feel some of the pain that everyone else was. Then I might suffer as much as I deserved, for all that I had done to my family, my friends, and _Kol_.

Why wasn't he fighting me, though? Why wasn't he demanding I talk all about my silly little problems?

My confusion got me up off the ground, throwing on the t-shirt and underwear that I had managed to dig out from my bag. They weren't anything special, just a pair of cotton bikini underwear, but paired with an oversized t-shirt, they were fitting.

I yanked the door open, and I noticed Kol's face twisted but turned away, almost as if he was trying to hide himself from me without being completely obvious about it. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing," he whispered.

I shook my head. "Tell me the truth. What. Is. Going. On?"

"Darling, please calm down." He stood himself up, walking over to place his hands along the side of my jawbone, his thumb brushing along the skin and catching me on fire. "I just . . . I was desperate. We did a spell to find you—"

"Why are you deflecting?" I cut him off, before he could spend any more time getting away from the question at hand. "What's going on Kol? Please just tell me."

His eyes fell from my face, though his hands never moved away. "I bound myself to you."

"You _what_?" It became hard to breathe, hard to focus, and the room suddenly felt a million degrees hotter. My mind was scattered, roaming around whatever he might mean by that.

He took a deep breath. "I . . . bound myself to you so we could find you, and then Finn found you so it was okay. It didn't matter."

"What does that mean?"

His eyes locked in mine again, all fear falling from his face to allow something more to show— _love_ , the very reason behind everything either of us had done thus far. "I . . . am bound to your will."

"What?!" I clamped my hand over my mouth but turned away from him, back towards the empty bathroom. I hadn't meant to say that, to practically scream at him, but he was _bound to me_ , to my will!

Everything I _never_ wanted for him, for anyone, was something he did _by choice_.

He reached out to grab onto me, but I yanked my arm back, prompting the pain I never wanted to see in his eyes again to shimmer its way out. "Please, Darcy. Please don't be angry."

Closing the door wasn't going to solve my problems, but it gave me a moment to catch my breath, to think carefully about everything I was going to do from this point forward.

What had I done wrong thus far? I said things all the time, sometimes even sarcastically, so had I made him do something he didn't want to do? He obviously wanted to help comfort me, to kick the door in and hold me until I told him all about my silly problems, and I had unknowingly taken that option from him.

I couldn't do that anymore. I had to watch everything I said.

 _That_ was what they were talking about. When Rebekah told me to be careful, when Elijah told me to watch what I said carefully—they were referring to _this_ , Kol's decision to bind himself to my will so that he could find me.

I didn't even know how that might work, how this idea came about, but it didn't matter in the end. All that mattered was that he had done it, and I had to watch every word that came from my mouth, at least directed towards him.

My mind began clouding over, trying to wrap my head around why he had thought this was a good idea, but it was so obvious that it almost hurt. He had done this because I was gone, because he had no idea how to find me because I was cloaked with a necklace that cloaked me, on top of the cloaking spell Prisca and Shea had put on me themselves.

He had no other way to find me, and he was desperate. I had made him desperate, desperate enough that the ruthless Original who many believed were incapable of true love bound himself to the will of another person to ensure that person was brought home safely.

Everything he had done had been out of love, and I was shutting him out. I was wallowing in my own self-pity and shutting him away from everything he so desperately needed back in his life—the intimacy and touch of his love.

We needed one another, and I couldn't just hide from this problem.

Kol barely let me step out of the bathroom before his arms were around me, almost crushing me into him. "Please don't be angry with me. I knew you wouldn't like it, but I didn't have another option. Nothing else was working."

"I'm not mad at you, Kol," I whispered, but until his hands grabbed onto my face again, cold against the burning skin, I didn't even realize there were tears on my cheeks, staining them and making me look even worse than I already felt. "I love you."

"I love you, Darcy," he breathed.

I wanted to kiss him, wanted to bring his mouth to mine and get this passion started back where it needed to go, but there were so many things I needed to know, questions I _had_ to ask first.

I buried myself into his arms instead, loving the strength and warmth I felt with his arms tightening around my body. "How literal is it?"

"It feels a lot like the sire bond," he admitted, blowing a warm breath along the top of my head. "I've never experienced that first hand, but it's what it seems like, from what I've seen and gathered. Unless you directly tell me to do something or not do something, I still have free will."

"I promise to be careful." My grip on him tightened, more tears falling down my face.

He pressed his lips against the top of my head. "Darcy, love, I made this choice for myself. The only thing that I hate is that I can't take care of you the way you need me to because you're pushing me away and telling me to leave you alone, and absolutely nothing in me wants to do that, except the part that is making me do that."

"You want the truth?" I closed my eyes and tightened my grip on him, hoping that it might help me feel a bit better. My arms around Kol always had a way of doing that, and it even worked this time. "I'm scared that you won't like what you see anymore, but saying that out-loud, after hearing everything you've done for me, I realize that it's silly. Maybe you won't like what you see, but you love me."

"I do, and I can assure you, Darcy, I will always love what I see, no matter what," he insisted, and he let go of me so he could grab onto my face, to force me to look into his beautiful eyes.

I shook my head. "You can't say that. You don't . . . you don't know what happened."

He didn't say anything more, simply reached down to put one arm at the crease of my knees while the other wrapped around my shoulder. In one fluid motion, I was being held bridal style in his arms, pressed against his chest, and there was the most amazing smile on his lips, shimmering in the golden warmth of his chocolate eyes.

It felt as if my face was suddenly on fire, a fire that rippled through to the rest of my body. "W-We can have sex without taking clothes off, right?"

He laid me back onto the bed, placing himself above me just so, ensuring that his eyes were looking directly into mine and my body was pinned with his. "Allow me to properly make love to you, darling. I'd say it's overdue."

His neck ducked down, finding the skin of my neck, and a trail began there, running around the collar of my shirt before moving up the other side of my neck, leaving a trail of blazing ecstasy everywhere he touched.

My lips began to tremble again, but I wasn't if that was overdue longing or fear. "I'm scared."

That much was true. I was terrified of this moment, of seeing the light fade from his eyes as he realized that I wasn't attractive like he used to find me.

"It's just me, darling," he reminded me, but he allowed himself to press into me, freeing his hands so they could cup my face. "What is there to be scared of?"

"The look in your eyes when you realize that I'm right."

His breath caught in his throat, the muscles of his shoulders stiffening again. "Darcy—"

"Be honest with me, Kol," I said, and I knew the implications of what I was doing. I knew that saying things the way I was meant he would have no other choice but to be honest with me, and no matter how much it was going to hurt to do, I had to hear it. "I need you to tell me the truth."

His brow furrowed, his eyes moving to hold onto mine. "You know that I will."

Sitting up beneath him was hard, but he allowed me the action, allowed me to press my hand against his cheek, the tips of my fingers touching his temple. It had been a long time since I felt this good, this alive, but this electric current pulsing through my veins was a Kol thing, a kind of thing I didn't know if I would ever get to feel again with anyone else.

"I hated every moment that I was away from you," I whispered.

He leaned forward to press his forehead against mine, and I wasn't sure if his eyes were closed, but mine were, to take in every sensation this kind of intimacy pushed through me. "It's over. Let's not talk about it anymore. Let's talk about now, or maybe stop talking. Just let me make love to you, darling. Please."

My eyes opened again, only so I could see what I was doing as my fingers found the buttons of his shirt. His breath hitched in his throat as I touched him, as I, at the fastest human pace possible, danced my fingers down to remove the shirt from his chest.

I couldn't breathe anymore, in the best of ways, and the sight of him, exactly as he was and exactly as he would always be, brought tears to my eyes. I didn't let them fall, but they formed at my eyelids, obscuring the perfect sight in front of me.

My hands trembled as I moved to remove my own shirt, but Kol caught on and helped me out, sliding the fabric above my hand with a tenderness that was foreign to him, except when it came to me.

His eyes moved to take in the sight of me, half naked in front of him, and a large breath puffed out his chest, pressing him into me again. "Darcy."

"The _truth_ ," I reminded him, using the best stern tone I could manage in the heat of the moment.

His hands cradled my face again, forcing an eye contact that I honestly didn't want to see, at least not if the sadder parts of my mind were right about what I was going to see. "You have never been more beautiful."

"What?" My eyes blinked rapidly, trying to ruin the illusion that my mind had put in front of me, the one that wouldn't destroy me, but it remained. The light in Kol's eyes didn't falter, only grew brighter the more he took in the sight of me.

"You filled out, Darcy." His hands slid down my sides, feeling the new curve of my hips before moving up rapidly, finding the large mounds that were my breastfeeding boobs. "Whoa."

My face caught fire again, and I knew he must've seen it, or at least felt the blood pooling beneath the skin of my cheeks. "It's part of breastfeeding."

"I'll be careful."

He gently pushed me back into the wall of pillows that the hotel generously put along the king sized bed, but he didn't leave me hanging. His lips pressed against the skin of my breasts, but they didn't find my nipples, didn't get fully into the foreplay that he very much enjoyed.

Instead they trailed down, stopping just at the crevice where my thickened thighs met my underwear.

His breaths were hot against the already blazing skin, and my head curled back, up towards the ceiling.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get a grip on myself, but with his fingers pulling down the panties I wore, it became more complicated. "Kol, I—"

"We have to make sure it doesn't hurt," he cut me off just moments before his lips began moving against me, his tongue flicking out to touch along the center of my pleasure.

Every part of me wanted this, but there was something I wanted more, something he would enjoy as much as I would—to have his dick sink fully into me. That was more prominent to me, with all the time that had passed, but I was so scared to ask for him to just fuck me. I didn't want to force anything, and I wanted him to enjoy this as much as I did.

If I asked him to stop, would he have to, even if he didn't want to?

Instead, I kept my mouth shut—well, aside from the moans that slipped out. I think his name and some expletives came out at some point too, probably the moment where my body began to squirm with the nearing orgasm, so much that my toes curled, and then his hands grabbed onto my hips, slamming me into him and keeping me right where he wanted me to be.

He felt it when I came, without having to listen to his name ripping through my throat, without having to feel the way my body tensed with the sudden explosive pleasure that I hadn't felt in more than two months.

Truth be told, I hadn't really counted, but it was far too long.

Kol's eyes were like liquid fire, burning through me and setting the entire building on fire around us, but I didn't give two shits about this damned hotel. I was in the process of watching him fully undress himself, so the hotel could fucking burn to the ground.

It was as if we hadn't spent any time away, but the fullest extent of the pleasure reminded us that we had. We had spent far too much time apart.

Kol moved in me with devoted expertise, knowing just which way to thrust into me to feel the length of me, to allow me the best experience that he could give me. He knew just where to touch me while his hips collided with mine, just where to kiss to bring me to the edge at top speed with the most amount of pleasure behind the upcoming fall.

Just moments after I reached my peak, after I dissolved into his very essence inside of me, he lost his own ability to hang on. It wasn't the usual time that it took to get Kol there, as it was usually a lot more work and pleasure along the way, but it had been a while for us.

Kol had probably gone more than two months without sex at some point in his life before—aside from the times he was daggered and in a coffin—but this wasn't sex. This wasn't a fuck to feel good. This was him lying his vulnerabilities at my feet, making sweet love to me and having the action reciprocated for him for the first time in his thousand year existence.

He finally got to experience that, and it was taken from him. No matter the reason, no matter the cause, he had to do without it after finally getting a taste of what it felt like, after finally living in the ecstasy that was real love, and it got him there faster than he might've gotten to his orgasm before.

It didn't matter. My mind was swirling, the rush of the moment taking me to completely new places. There were mixed opinions on how childbirth would affect sex after healing, but it was nothing like I feared.

Somehow, it felt better than before, but maybe that was my love for Kol growing. Maybe it was better than before, the absence playing tricks on my mind, but it was everything I needed and so much more.

He laid on top of me, using his practically limp arms to keep his weight off of me and nothing more, and he took slow and deliberate breaths.

"Hurry up."

I didn't expect him to laugh, though it was breathless, but he laughed and rolled us both over, to take advantage of the full length of the bed beneath us. His arms wrapped around me again, holding me into him, and though he held onto me, had me pressed into his chest while he recovered, his lips began another fiery trail down the length of my side, exploring the new curves to the absolute fullest.

And to think I almost missed this.

* * *

 **A/N: So from I'm pretty sure this point forward, chapters are a lot longer than they have been. I'm not gonna say every single one will be 3000 plus words, but they get lengthier. The way I used to write, I'd write a chapter until about 1500 words, and then I'd start finding a way to wind down. Now, I've realized that word count doesn't matter in the slightest, so I write chapters until they're complete.**

 **Anyways...**

 **Thank you guys so much for your continued support! I'm so thrilled you enjoy this story. :) It's fun to write, and all I've ever wanted is for people to enjoy my writing even half as much as I enjoy writing it. So far, it seems it's working with this story, and that means a lot.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	16. 15: One Final Day

"Wherever you go, I'll follow.  
Don't worry about tomorrow.  
I will be in your shadow,  
Walking right beside you every day.  
I'll be the one to save ya."

 _Where My Love Goes_ : Lawson

* * *

There had to be something, something more. Something . . . something that could help.

A month had passed, living life with a boyfriend bound to my will, and it wasn't as horrifying as it sounded, only because I was able to watch what I said. I didn't like it, not even remotely, but this was the first chance I had gotten to do something about it.

The home in Phoenix was built on a massive property, with room to expand with more houses in the future. We didn't know how long we would be here, however, so building each family a separate house was pointless at the moment, though Klaus had it available to do so.

Everyone else remained downstairs, playing with the twins who grew more and more each day. Prisca had warned me that there might be some side effects from the spell that was used to speed up their development, but so far, we weren't seeing any. There was still so much that could happen, but they had passed the two month mark without any problems.

Things had changed in the best of ways, more than I ever really expected. Kol . . . was a father. He struggled to adjust to it all, with the thousand years behind him that ensured he would never _be_ a father, but he tried to be the best he could be. The rest of the family did the same.

Their day spent together did more for everyone than we could've hoped. Stefan, who had been a prisoner at one point, was now willingly here, willingly protecting the kids that he insisted deserved a chance to live their life, to be more than what the witch community had already decided that they were.

He was getting along with everyone, even the Mikaelsons. The banter between Klaus and Stefan was still very tense, but he had set aside his differences and realized that Klaus wasn't worth it, that he never had been.

It was good to see everyone growing. Rebekah had tried to kill Elena, and though Kol's blood saved her, she was the reason she came back as a vampire. Elena used to use that as fuel to hate Rebekah, but with the life she now had in front of her, it was more reason for her to get along with her, because she wouldn't have had Kol's blood in her system otherwise.

I was so thankful to see everyone growing and changing this way. It was amazing.

When I managed to sneak away earlier, I had never really thought that I would be able to get away alone for long. I had gotten away longer than I expected, but eventually, the inevitable began to happen, at the sound of someone leaning against the wooden frame of the open library door.

Kol's eyes were soft, with a shimmer of light that I had dearly missed. "Love, I can assure you that we've scoured those journals and grimoires. There isn't anything you could find."

I let out a soft sigh and, without thinking, allowed my head to smack down into the grimoire I had been reading, the one that contained all the information on the spell. It only hurt a little, but I didn't imagine Kol enjoyed seeing me in any form of pain.

In just a moment, his hands melted into my shoulders, moving with the gentle but firm precision of a skilled masseuse—or just someone who knew how to make me feel good.

It felt good enough that I sat back up, curling back into the back of the chair and exploring this much needed touch more. "I don't want this."

"I know," he murmured, and he leaned down a bit, to press his lips against the top of my head. "I knew you wouldn't want it when I did it, which was why I wasn't afraid to do it."

I shook my head. "You deserve free will."

Without even having to look at him, I knew that he was rolling his eyes, but he didn't say anything more on the matter, only leaned down further to put his lips next to mine. "I have plenty of free will, enough to freely roam and touch your perfect body any way that I choose." I didn't mean to curl further into him, but his hands moved from my shoulder to wrap around me, to pin me in that position, with only the chair I was in between us. "They've got the twins."

"They do, don't they?" I murmured, and the rush of heat surged through me, warming even my toes, and I felt myself growing increasingly wet and uncomfortable, in the best of ways. "And the twins are _plenty_ distracting."

I felt him kneel down a bit, to get himself closer to my level, but only so that his hands could rub down my body, towards the edge of my dress. His touch so close to where I wanted him to be had me squirming into him.

It was over far too soon, however, just as his fingers reached the lining of my underwear. Kol was suddenly standing upright, and one look at the scowl twisted across his face was all the answer I needed.

"We need a place of our own," he all but growled, and despite being ripped away from what I wanted, it made me laugh a little.

Rebekah stepped into the room, wearing a smirk, and her eyes tightened in on Kol, who was clearly the focus of her arrogance. It only lasted a few moments, however, because it shifted into something kinder, only to have her gaze move to me. "Darcy, darling, there are more important things to worry about than what my brother has done to himself."

"I know, but I figured, you guys were watching the twins," I pointed out. "We've got fifteen hybrids down there, and, I mean, what can I really do without the risk of killing someone?"

A loud sigh sounded behind me, and I didn't have to look up to Kol to see that he was uncomfortable. "Please don't remind me."

"That actually is a fair point," Rebekah spoke up, giving me a tight smile. "We need to turn you."

"But—"

"If you say the word breastfeeding, I will hurt you," she warned, though at this point, I knew that Rebekah wouldn't do anything to hurt me. "No offense, darling, but I really don't think these children need the added benefits of breastfeeding. You're only hurting yourself."

My head fell towards the table again, though I restrained the full momentum of the action to ensure it didn't hurt me again. "What do you think about all of this, Kol?"

"It's not my choice to make, love." His hands moved over to rest along my shoulder, though he didn't rub into them as he had been before.

I sat up right and turned my head up towards him, to get a better glimpse of his all too perfect face, and I saw the softness in his eyes, paired with the tense muscles in his jaw. "I didn't wanna have to do this, but Kol, be honest with me."

"I think the best thing for everyone is for you to turn."

It had been a long time since I knowingly forced him to do anything, but the only other time in memory was when he was trying to ravage my body when I _really_ had to pee. He wasn't going to let me, so I had to make him lie still and be good, long enough for me to pee and then shower.

I let my eyes roam back over to Rebekah, who was watching the two of us with a strange light in her eyes. "The hybrid who didn't trigger her curse until after, the one you turned with your blood?"

She nodded. "She's downstairs, doing just fine as a hybrid without doppelgänger blood. I didn't tell you which she was for a reason, because I didn't want you to watch her extra carefully and see a problem that didn't exist. She's fine now that hybrids are no longer bound by the curse."

I turned fully in my seat now, rising myself up on my knees so that I was pretty much level with Kol's face. "Do you want to know why I've been delaying this?"

There was a smile trying to form on his lips, something that seemed to just happen any time I was around, and I would never get enough of that smile. "Of course."

My lips quirked to the side, but I couldn't look away from him, no matter how much I wanted to do so. "Because I'm scared that if I do this, there won't be any fixing this problem."

He shook his head and grabbed onto my face, with the tenderness that came after a few months of dating a human as the strongest vampire in existence. "When I made the choice to do this, Darcy, I knew that it could be permanent, and I didn't care. Please, love, don't let this stop you from becoming a vampire. This is absolutely what's best for everyone, most importantly you. This is what we wanted, remember? A chance at a forever without having to worry about you being sired to Nik. We have that chance, so let's take it while we still have the option."

"You're right." Despite the hesitance, the uncertainty, I was able to smile at the reminder of the simpler times in our lives, when we were just two people dating without a care in the world—before my siblings knew, before his brother knew. It was just a guy and a girl exploring whatever the connection between the two of them was, and I was very happy to say that the connection was that of soulmates, of two people who were somehow meant to find one another. "I'll admit. I didn't think you'd be able to do it."

His eyes told a smirk before his lips did, but it formed there, too—barely. "Your lack of faith in me is almost insulting."

"But there was a part of me that hoped you would because I wanted to have this chance," I added on.

Though his eyes were on my lips, he leaned forward to place a kiss on my forehead. I imagined it had a lot to do with the company in the room, who I had almost forgotten about, but I didn't protest it, as it _was_ rude of us to make out in front of others. We always ended up so carried away with one another that things got a bit too much for any kind of public setting, unless we were filming a porno—which we absolutely weren't.

"Are you ready to do this now?"

"No."

He pulled back away from me, clearly not expecting this answer, and his eyes rounded. "What?"

"We were just all on the same page," Rebekah groaned.

"Yes," I agreed. "But there's something I want to do first."

Watching Rebekah's face twist up, to the point her nose scrunched, made me laugh, even if the reasons for the action were incorrect. "Ew."

"No. Not that," I said, though it wasn't _entirely_ true. I _did_ want to have sex with Kol one last time as a human, just before turning, so I could note the exact differences. "I just . . . give me one more day. I want one more day where I don't have to worry about killing my own kids. I want to spend the whole day with them tomorrow, holding onto them and not being afraid that I might kill them, and then you know what? We haven't been on a proper date in so long, I can't even remember the last one."

The sound of Kol's laugh was something I didn't know if I would ever get used to, but I relished in the warmth of it, in the beauty of the smile that lingered more than the sound of it did. "Of course, love. Tomorrow, you'll have the entire day with the kids, and then I'll take you on a proper date."

I nodded. "And then we'll come home, and you can turn me at 12:01, ensuring that I got one last day as a human."

There was a rather bright and satisfied smile on Rebekah's lips, shining even brighter in the depths of her beautiful eyes, but that came with being a Mikaelson, I supposed—endless beauty that was sometimes easy to ignore in light of the horrible things they were capable of.

I wondered if it would be the same for Theia and Alastor, simply because they _were_ Mikaelsons.

"I'll make sure to keep Nik away from you," she promised.

"Actually, I need to go talk to him right now," I sighed, and though I stood up, Kol's hand moved to sit me right back down. "I just wanna give him some more blood bags before I turn."

Rebekah's eyes widened, and I imagined her expression perfectly mirrored Kol's, but I didn't turn away from Rebekah, who was shaking her head before she found the words to say.

"You were guilt ridden for _days_ after allowing him to turn the last group of them with your own blood, and now you're going to give him blood to turn more?"

"No offense, love, but that's a horrible idea," Kol said, and he wrapped his fingers around my shoulders again, maybe to distract me from what I was talking about.

I shook my head. "The chances of him finding any werewolves any time soon are very slim, but he'll ensure that nothing happens to that blood. You know what else doppelgänger blood is good for besides turning hybrids sired to Nik?"

Watching her face soften with recognition, watching her smile grow a bit devious, made me feel good, good enough that I was grinning right back at her.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Darcy Gilbert," she informed me. "You are just sneaky enough to have a shot at surviving an eternity."

"I may do a lot of stupid things when it comes to taking care of myself, but you better damn well believe I will stop at nothing to protect my children, my family." There was a smile on my lips when I turned my head back up towards Kol, whose smile was bright enough to light the entire room, without the actual light fixture hanging above. "This is still hard to believe."

He reached down and brushed a finger across my cheek, which only made his smile widen. "For us both."

This time, when I stood from the chair, I was able to do so without being forced back down. Kol actually helped me step away from it, get securely grounded on my feet, and when his hand began to fall away from mine, I wrapped my fingers around his. "Well, I'm off to give Klaus some more of my blood before bed. I'd like you to be there, to ensure he doesn't feed me his blood and kill me somehow."

Kol, though he smiled, rolled his eyes, as if he thought the notion that he wasn't going to be there anyways was absolutely ridiculous. In a way, I suppose it was. He was bound to me, with both love and magic, so of course he was going to be downstairs to ensure nothing bad happened to me while his brother was draining me of my blood, which was mostly likely going to require some vampire blood to keep me alive and kicking.

"Of course."

* * *

 **A/N: So a few days ago, I wasn't even sure there was gonna be a part 3, and now, I've got the basic skeleton of what part 3 is gonna be. I'll have to watch season 2 and 3 of the _Originals_ to get all the information I need to properly write them, but the basic skeleton is there, and it should be interesting. I hope it is anyways. :)**

 **This story has become very special to me, and I honestly wasn't even sure how well it was gonna go over, but I'm so glad that you guys enjoy reading it.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy! :)**


	17. 16: A Hail Mary

"Rest your head like it was made of stone,  
Next to mine, darling lay your bones.  
I hold you closer, let me show.  
We'll shape this world like it was meant to be  
Made of clay for only you and me.  
Awake with you is better than a dream,  
Better than a dream.

Oh my love, let me be your fire.  
We're a thousand miles up and I'm 'bout to get higher.  
Feel my heart beating out my chest.  
You're the only prayer I need to make me feel blessed."

 _Oh My Love_ : The Score

* * *

Kol knew that there was so much to do.

He had never really thought much about making someone's last day as a human special. Most of his existence had been spent either killing people without blinking or turning people without a care in the world.

Today was different. Today had to be absolutely perfect.

Darcy didn't set an alarm, and Kol was thankful for that. She wanted to get plenty of sleep, without sleeping past ten. She begged Kol to wake her up if she slept longer than that, so of course he had to do that.

Being bound to Darcy's will was just as he thought it might be. She absolutely never wanted it, and she was very careful to ensure Kol had his free will. His siblings' fears had all been for nothing, as Kol tried to tell them. All that time wasted . . . .

He stopped the thought and pulled himself out of bed, moving carefully to ensure Darcy didn't stir. His eyes found the love of his life, and he noticed that sometime in the middle of her sleep, she had moved most of the covers off of her scarcely clad body.

He knew that now wasn't the time to let himself get lost in the beauty of her body, in the way that it had changed since having children. He had taken it in at any possible moment, but he always found something new to love about it, and her, every day that passed.

There was peace in her smile, peace that didn't used to be there. They hadn't lived together before, but those nights that Kol stayed over, or the nights that she stayed with him . . . Darcy was always so afraid. Whether of his brother or how things might turn out, she was always afraid of something.

Not anymore. Though Kol feared almost constantly for the safety of his miracle family, Darcy trusted the Mikaelsons, trusted her family. She didn't worry for them because she knew that no one would let anything happen.

With a soft kiss on her forehead, Kol pulled the covers over her body and didn't let himself get lost in her beauty, not then. After the night was over, he would have forever to enjoy her, to get lost in her.

Today had to be perfect.

He slipped into some clothes, only casual in comparison to what he planned to wear tonight, and crossed the hall, into the room of his children. They had been in his life for a little more than a month, but he still struggled to wrap his head around it all.

One woman, who had decided that he didn't deserve to be daggered and in a coffin, changed his life before six months had even passed, changed it so profoundly that he could never be who he once was. He could never go back to the time where he didn't care about anyone or anything. Not that he wanted to go back, but there was just absolutely no way to anymore.

The twins' cribs had been placed side-by-side, far enough apart that someone could stand in between them, but close enough that they could see one another. Darcy always said that they were best friends, that they always wanted to be around the other. It was how she and her sister were as well, and Kol was grateful that their sibling bond was stronger than the one with his own.

Was it, though? Things had certainly changed since the introduction of the Mikaelson twins. Things had been _different_. They were kind to one another, looking out for one another in a way that they never had before. Of course they fought, but they made up by the end of the day. No one ended up daggered and in a box.

Though things were different, Kol absolutely wasn't going to give his brother the power of the daggers. He didn't trust him that much, and Kol didn't want to miss a moment of his children's life. He didn't figure his siblings would actually let Klaus keep Kol daggered, but it was a risk and an idea he refused to even ponder.

He ensured that no one could ever find the daggers, not through chance or by locator spell. That had been done while Darcy was away, after he heard the whispers between his siblings.

He imagined it was the only reason he didn't end up daggered when he tried to do the binding spell, and looking at it now, maybe it would've been best to wait. After all, he bound himself, only to find her not even a minute later.

Though it could've been avoided, Kol would absolutely not change a moment of it.

His children were stirring, and Kol knew they would probably awaken soon. He wanted to be there, to ensure they didn't have to cry. Hearing their cries did things to him that he never imagined, stirred up so much pain that he wondered how he might go about disciplining them one day.

He was going to be the worst father ever.

Though most of the residents inside of the home were vampires, Kol still heard as someone walked through the open door of the nursery.

Elena sucked in a breath. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"You're fine, Elena." Kol tore his eyes from the twins to glance at Elena, to let her see the calm in his eyes that most weren't used to seeing in him. He wasn't that used to feeling it either, but it was the greatest peace he had ever known, thanks to the greatest woman he had ever known. "I was just about to bring them downstairs."

Her eyes softened, taking in the proof that Darcy had been right all along. While the other doubted Kol, didn't trust him or believe him to be even remotely good, she had always insisted that there was good in him, that she saw a person inside that just needed to be loved and cared for properly.

Behind all the hurt and betrayal, there _was_ a man worth loving. Elena absolutely understood now.

She crossed the room, going to stand beside Alastor's crib. The twins were beginning to awaken, wasting no time opening their eyes wide to take in their surroundings. At the sight of some of their favorite people, the twins began to glow brighter than the sun shining in through the sheer curtains of their window.

Alastor reached his arms up, and Elena didn't hesitate to give him exactly what he wanted. Rebekah had declared them to be the most spoiled children in all of history, and Kol imagined she was right. He couldn't remember the last time they had been put down to do anything more than sleep or change them.

Kol reached down to pick up his princess, who looked more like her mother than he was rightly prepared for. He knew children could favor their parents, and he didn't imagine that his _would_ favor her much, not with her being a doppelgänger, but as a small baby, he could see so much of her mother that sometimes, he got lost in it.

She wasn't a doppelgänger. They had thought to compare baby pictures of Elena and Darcy to Theia, and sure enough, there were subtle differences. It was enough that they knew she wouldn't grow up to be a doppelgänger herself.

Her smile warmed Kol in a way that no one but his children or Darcy could. They had profoundly changed his life, and he still struggled to figure out what he had done to deserve this kind of peace.

It was a fear he managed to keep from Darcy, wondering if he had been granted this peace just to have it all ripped away through death. He wondered if he was given these miracles and this kind of joy just so he had to suffer the pain of having it all ripped away.

He was so afraid of losing Darcy. Vampires weren't invincible, not even the Mikaelsons. They were close, especially with the possession of the one weapon that could actually kill them, but even they could die.

There were so many enemies Kol had made over the length of his eternity. How far would some of them go?

It was why the children had been kept quiet from any who didn't come along with them. It was why they moved far away from anyone who might know them.

Vampires wouldn't live in Phoenix, Arizona. Aside from the excessive heat, almost year round, it was so sunny almost all the time. The majority of vampires wouldn't know the first thing about a daylight ring, so in Phoenix, they didn't have to worry about running into excessive vampires, vampires who might want to harm Kol or any of the Mikaelsons.

"How might one go about changing a diaper?"

Elena laughed, without thinking much about it, and she glanced over at Kol, just moments before lying Alastor onto the double changing table. Everything they bought came in twos.

"We tried to teach you before," she reminded him. "You didn't want to learn, said there were plenty of people who were already quite skilled in that department."

"Yes, well, I have been reconsidering," he admitted, and though he smiled, the truth was much darker than he liked to let on. "If by some random and strange chance I end up watching them alone, how would I even begin to care for them? I'm their father, after all. I should learn to do that myself."

She gestured him over, not letting the light in her eyes die. "It's not as hard as you think, honestly. Alastor can be a bit wild sometimes, so I think it would be best if you change Theia."

Kol nodded and was suddenly next to her, without thinking much about moving at that speed. The twins had never really shown signs of finding it uncomfortable, and in fact, Theia suddenly laughed.

His heart was melting inside of his chest, but he laid her down anything. She immediately curled her legs, attempting to grab onto her feet to put them into her mouth. They had both discovered their feet recently, and Kol decided it was one of the most adorable things he had ever seen in his life.

"Their first morning change is always the worst," Elena said. "It's the messiest. We also usually change them into something lighter than their pajamas because it's, you know, Phoenix."

Kol nodded and turned towards the dresser across the room. "Right."

"Don't worry." Elena laughed. "I'll get those after we change them."

He glanced back towards Theia, who was still just grinning away. There was goop in his chest where his heart used to be, and he wondered if he would ever get used to this.

Why had his mother wanted to take this away from him?

Elena moved her fingers through the buttons of Alastor's pajamas, and the moment he felt the cool air on the skin of his legs, he pulled them into the air, laughing madly. If there was one thing Kol had learned about his infant son, it was that he was wild and loved freedom. Baths were one of his favorite things because he was completely naked, and Alastor seemed to love that feeling.

Elena grabbed diapers from the shelf of the changing table, placing one next to Theia's resting point for Kol, and she removed Alastor's slowly enough that Kol could notice every step she took.

With a gentle touch, Elena wrapped her hand around his ankles and pulled him up, even though Alastor tried to pull his legs away. He was laughing, but Elena wasted absolutely no time.

"Unless you want him to pee on you, you need to do the process quickly," she explained. "Just lift her up, slide the clean diaper underneath, pull it over her, and fasten the straps." She demonstrated the last two steps with ease, and though Alastor was still covered, he smiled big at his aunt. "And they have clean diapers."

Kol turned back to Theia, who was watching him with her own smile. Darcy absolutely loved the fact that the children seemed to know who their father was, as they had grown more attached to him than anyone else. Their two favorite people in the world were Darcy and Kol, and she was quite proud.

He followed Elena's steps exactly, down to adjusting the diaper beneath his daughter to ensure it fully covered her, and that was that. They had been only wet diapers, so he imagined they were far worse when they were dirty, but he had successfully changed his first diaper.

Elena already had clothes for them both resting beside the table, and Kol stared at the onesie she had chosen for Theia. It was white, with gold writing, but it was the words themselves that got to him.

 _My heart belongs to Daddy._

He had never noticed her wearing something like this before, and one glance at the smirk on Elena's lips told Kol that she had, in fact, never worn that before.

"We decided to save it for the day you decided to learn to change diapers."

"How kind of you." Kol didn't let his eyes tear up, though his smile did widen. He had watched Darcy change their clothes more times than he could count, so he knew how to hold her head as he slid the onesie over it.

Most times, one would think that a baby needed long sleeves at the beginning of February, but this was Phoenix, so short sleeves were more than okay.

After he fastened the buttons at the bottom, he finally took time to notice the rest of the outfit that Elena had chosen. All Kol saw was a bright blue and gold mess of fabric with a bow made of the same material, with the same tiny gold bow in the center of all the blue.

"That's a skirt."

Kol shifted his gaze, eyeing Elena skeptically. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Because she's never worn anything quite like this before," she said, though a breath of a laugh passed through her smile. "Seriously, Darcy's gonna love it. She cried when Rebekah _showed_ her the outfit."

That was all Kol needed to hear. Elena helped him figure out how to get the skirt on her, and he hated admitting that the mess of fabric looked absolutely adorable on her, especially when Elena put the bow into her thickening brown hair.

Both of his children already had hair, though Theia had more than Alastor. He wondered sometimes if they were born with it, but he never liked to ask many questions about their birth. It would just remind him that he wasn't there, that he didn't get to see his children brought into the world.

It was probably silly in the grand scheme of it all, as Darcy had done the only thing she knew how. He didn't blame her, but that was a hard time in his life. He wondered how it would've been different had he been there.

Then he would remind himself that there was no way to know that they would've had the same outcome had he been there. Everything was fine. Everyone made it alive—or undead, as all of the people that Darcy traveled with became hybrids or vampires.

He was thankful Caroline had decided to join them, with all the newly turned hybrids and vampires. The hybrids wouldn't do anything to hurt the twins, but with them no longer inside of Darcy, they might accidentally hurt _her_ , at least without someone around to teach them control like no one that Kol had met in all of his years. Caroline exhibited extraordinary control, and though he didn't necessarily see what his brother did in her, he at least understood that she wasn't just some vampire. There was something different about her.

Kol picked Theia up and rested her against his chest, whereas Elena picked up Alastor. He hadn't noticed, but he was also wearing a onesie that said _Handsome like Daddy_.

He wondered if Darcy was responsible for that one, since she knew he could never hear how handsome he was enough. It was also fitting, as Alastor very looked like him with enough of his mother to somehow look even better.

Elena and Kol made their way downstairs, and Rebekah was the first to notice Theia's outfit. She was suddenly in front of them, with tears in her eyes.

The ill feelings between Kol's family and Darcy's had all but faded into existence, and Elena's smile was genuine towards Rebekah. "Guess what he did today."

Rebekah glanced at her brother, letting her smirk show more than just across her lips. "It's about time. I have been waiting for this since I found that outfit, and I'm sure Darcy will appreciate it."

Klaus was suddenly beside Rebekah as well, who had shifted to the little boy in Elena's arms, but his eyes remained on little Theia.

"May I hold my niece?"

"Of course." Kol gently handed his little princess over to the man he once thought he would never trust, especially with something he cared so much about. Things were different now, as Klaus cared more about Theia and Alastor than anyone expected—maybe even more than himself. He didn't let his eyes linger long, lest the thousand years of betrayal make him second guess what he had done more than once at this point. "Elena? You wouldn't happen to know anything about cooking, would you? I wanted to make Darcy's favorite everything today, but last time I tried, I think I almost made her throw up."

Elena shook her head. "I can't help you there. Darcy was the cook of our house after our parents died because I was horrendous at it."

Kol didn't know who had already woken up, but at the sight of Bonnie coming into the room, he imagined most people were probably awake or would be soon.

"I can help," she said. "For Darcy and Elena's birthday, I actually cooked her favorite breakfast."

"She did it perfectly," Elena agreed. "If anyone could help you, it would be Bonnie."

Kol didn't say anything, only smiled at his favorite friend of Darcy's and stepped into the kitchen with her. After living in the home for almost a month, everyone knew where everything was. They had adjusted well, much better than Kol thought they might. Even the people they had only met when Darcy came home were fitting right in, learning to live with complete strangers and adjusting to their new life.

Bonnie didn't do it for Kol, which he greatly appreciated. She simply leaned against the counter and told him exactly what to do. The waffles were most essential, as Darcy called them a rare phenomenon that only her mother could make—French waffles. They were made with the same flavoring as French toast, with the added sweet of the waffle batter, and Darcy had once told Kol that she could eat her weight in them.

Kol saved the bacon for last, as Darcy _loved_ warm bacon, so he wanted it to be fresh. The moment it hit the hot griddle, the popping and sizzling began, but Bonnie also reached out to grab Kol's arm, to grab his attention away from the food for a moment.

For an extra precaution, Bonnie moved to turn the sink on, and Kol was immediately alert, glancing back to ensure there were no signs of any other person. He didn't know exactly who Bonnie was trying to hide her words from, but he wasn't going to let anyone hear, whatever she had to say.

"I may have found a way around it," she murmured, and even with the things sounding around them to silence their words, she still spoke softly, just in case.

His brow furrowed, but he looked to her now, with the idea that they were safe to speak for a moment. "What?"

She, too, stared at the doorway, but her eyes remained focused. "I can make Darcy an Original and bind her to you instead of the white oak, and it may reverse the effects of the spell we did on you."

Kol had no words, couldn't even remember how to breathe for the moment, but Bonnie suddenly turned, flipping the water back off. He didn't know why she might've done that, not until he heard the softest footsteps coming into the room—the steps of a vampire.

He knew he needed to distract himself for a moment, to put away the surprise and _excitement_ at the idea of what Bonnie was saying. It didn't matter to him if he was forever bound to Darcy. He had known the risks, but to hear an idea thrown out that Kol hadn't thought about . . . she could be as strong as he was, almost completely invincible.

With her bound to Kol, she would only die if he did.

Kol grabbed the spatula to move one of the smaller waffles onto a plate, and he slid it Elena's way. She was by the island to grab onto it before it could fall off, and her forehead pulled up.

"That . . . smells almost perfect."

"Try it," Kol suggested. "I'd like to know if I need to start all over, though I don't imagine I did anything horrendously wrong since Bonnie was watching the entire time."

Elena did as he asked, without bothering to look for the syrup, and it had barely even touched her tongue before a smile grew. "That's perfect."

He let the excitement of the moment drown out all else, let him focus on finishing the bacon he was making. He knew that he and Bonnie didn't have long to talk about what she had said, but there was an entire day. Everyone would be so focused on ensuring that Darcy had the best last day they could give her that Kol and Bonnie would be able to slip away, to talk further about what she was saying.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked.

He hadn't thought about how Bonnie was a good person, how lying and pretending that nothing was going on wasn't exactly her strong suit—at least not to her best friend.

Bonnie let out a breath, however, and Kol glanced at her, surprised by the pressed smile he saw. "Yeah. I was just thinking about how everyone's probably right, how I should become a vampire."

He didn't know if she had said that to distract Elena or if she meant it, but he couldn't figure out how she might mean that. She had just mentioned using her magic to make Darcy and Original vampire, yet she was talking about becoming a vampire?

They weren't alone anymore, instead joined by one of the newer people that had come into their lives to protect the ones that Kol cared about more than any else. They had protected the love of his life, helped her safely deliver his children, and he would forever be in their debt, even if they insisted that he owed them nothing.

He liked them, though, even the ones who were unsure about it all. The stares between Rebekah and Oryn hadn't gone unnoticed by Kol, but he was pretty fond of Prisca. In some way, she reminded him of Darcy, though Darcy was nowhere near as bubbly. She was always happy and always striving to do the right thing, but Prisca had a way of being _too_ bubbly sometimes.

It was her twin who stood at the island, giving Bonnie a smile of understanding.  
"As hard as it is to do, it was probably the best thing Prisca and I did. We gave Darcy our magic to use, to at least make sure it didn't go to waste, but after tonight, I don't know if she's gonna need it."

"I think I'll put it in the vessel anyways so the magic doesn't die with me," Bonnie said. "But I want to wait until tomorrow as well, to have my one last day as human."

"Of course," Elena said, and with tears in her eyes, she moved over to hug her best friend.

Bonnie hugged her back, but her eyes moved over to Kol, to convey words that she couldn't say.

Bonnie wanted to wait until morning to become a vampire, after ensuring that Darcy became an Original vampire. She wanted to turn from Darcy's bloodline.

It would be an interesting day ahead, getting everything ready that they needed without anyone finding out. His family would never agree to this kind of thing, would never allow him this opportunity. Even if it meant Kol was no longer bound, he imagined that they wouldn't let her become one, in the name of family pride and keeping the Original vampires within the Mikaelson family.

He knew they wouldn't see her for what she was, _family_. Above all else, she was the mother of his children, and for that, his family had sworn to protect her as well, to ensure nothing bad ever happened.

The fact that she was Kol's soulmate, the love of his life, was only an added bonus.

At the sight of her standing there, with a t-shirt pulled over the thin camisole she had worn earlier, and the cutest pajama shorts just barely poking out beneath the bottom of the t-shirt, Kol was ripped from his wandering thoughts and pulled into more, some that made his body burn in ways that he only experienced with her.

There were tears in her different colored eyes, paired with a smile that had more power over Kol than he had once thought. The time without her proved to him just how strong the hold she had on him really was, especially that larger than life smile.

Elena let go of Bonnie, glancing back at her sister and giving her a smile that almost matched. "Well, your boyfriend has been busy this morning. He learned to change a diaper, and what better breakfast to have on your last day as a human than your absolute favorite?"

She crossed the room to hug Kol, who had completely forgotten about the bacon behind him. Bonnie hadn't, as she moved over to push him away—enough that she could finish cooking it.

He was wrapped in Darcy's gently but warm embrace. He often thought how different things would be when she was a vampire, though he had always noted that he would always be stronger as an Original.

Would they be equal in strength, or would his thousand years of life and experience still give him an edge?

He felt her grip around him tighten, and with one glance down, he found her already looking up towards him.

His hands moved to wipe the tears from her cheeks, and he loved the light he saw in those beautiful eyes. He didn't care how different they were. Darcy was absolutely stunning and the most timeless beauty he had ever met. After the night was over, she would really be eternal, in a way that no one could change.

"Thank you," she said, but her words were soft, like the fluffiest blanket. They wrapped around him and soothed him in a way that had become familiar, with Darcy around and in his life. "You're amazing."

"I just wanted to make your last day the best I could," he disagreed, but he winked at her anyways. Of course Kol didn't actually think he was all that amazing, especially as she came into his life and showed him just how horrible he had been over the centuries, but he liked to play up his ego anyways. And he absolutely loved seeing her eyes light up with the sweetest yearning, longing for the two to be a place that wasn't where they currently stood.

"Damn it, Darcy, had I known this was what I'd be following around, I never would've come."

Kol tore his eyes from the woman in his arms for a moment, to look towards Shea. She had tears falling down her face, which she was working very hard to wipe away, but her smile shone brighter than her eyes.

Darcy's laugh was the sweetest and brightest sound Kol had ever heard, over his many years. Though it was soft, it echoed through the room, maybe throughout the house. It melted into him at least, and he couldn't imagine why she ever thought it wasn't the most beautiful sound in all of the world. She hated it, and he couldn't believe someone could hate that sound.

It wasn't just the sound. It was the twinkle in her eyes, the smile of her perfectly shaped lips that brought to life even the deadest of souls. Everything about her was perfection, and her laugh was no different.

How could anyone not see her the way that Kol did? How could she have once been the "ugly Gilbert twin" to anyone?

She was a rare and beautiful gem, the most beautiful in all of the world, and when she laughed, Kol felt endless. He felt all of the wonderful things she had made him feel in one sudden moment, and most times, it was over all too soon, but this laugh was different.

This was the laugh of a woman at peace, a woman who was too happy to let a simple smile express that feeling, and Kol could never get enough of the perfect sound.

He would never have to either, because after the night was over, he would have her forever.

* * *

 **A/N: Seriously, y'all, I hope this chapter hit you in the feels like it did me when I was writing it.**

 **Also, I know that things are a bitOOC because Bonnie would never willingly turn into a vampire, but there is a legitimate reason behind it. It explains her decision a bit better later on, but don't worry. There will be plenty of witches and magic and fun, especially in part 3. I don't know how it's exactly gonna go yet, but I do know that it's gonna be fun and challenging to write, so I can't wait for it. :D**

 **I also really should start watching the _Originals_ before I get to the end of this story.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy! :)**


	18. 17: One Final Night

"Spinning like a girl in a brand new dress,  
We had this big wide city all to ourselves.  
We blocked the noise with the sound of 'I need you.'  
And for the first time I had something to lose."

 _Holy Ground_ : Taylor Swift

* * *

I couldn't remember a better day throughout the entirety of my life.

My life had been a good one. Even though the shadow of Elena always hung over me, I was happy. My parents, who we later found out weren't related to me at all, were good ones. They loved us all as if we were their own, so much that we never realized that we _weren't_ —not until all the supernatural stuff got involved.

I was an anomaly, a werewolf and a witch. That alone was mostly unheard of, but add in the fact that I was a _siphon_ , not just a normal witch . . . then I was a doppelgänger, one who didn't look like all the others.

Kol liked to say that it was further proof that I was meant to be eternal. I was something so unique and rare that nature was just _begging_ for me to be immortal. I disagreed, insisting that nature fought hard to ensure that I couldn't be immortal.

After tonight, I would be.

Klaus gave me his word that he wasn't going to ruin my day. A lot had changed in him, for the better. He was much kinder, though the asshole we all knew and didn't really love was still in there. He was still fierce, willing to do whatever it took to protect his family, but there was a soft side that I don't know if _he_ knew there was. Klaus had spent so many centuries guarding himself, protecting himself from whatever danger might come his way, that he never stopped to check if there was any sliver of humanity inside. Maybe he just assumed there wasn't, but the way he looked at my kids told me otherwise.

The day spent playing with Theia and Alastor had been beautifully glorious. There hadn't been a whole lot of time for that before, though they were also a lot smaller before. At only two months old, they were still small, but they were more alive than they had been before. Their legs were moving, their eyes were brighter, and they found some of the best things funny.

I sneezed, and they both fell into fits of laughter that had me crying. I had never seen Kol look the way he did either. His eyes were blurred with tears, his smile so wide that it almost took over his face.

In that moment, we were a family, a normal family who didn't have to worry about someone showing up to kill the innocent children. We were happy, and there was nothing more I could've asked for on my last day as a human.

With my day behind me, and the amazing night I'm sure I had ahead, I stepped out of Caroline's room. I thought about getting ready in the same room that Kol was, but I figured I might get distracted, or he might. He had been in and out most of the day, and there were so many things I wanted to ask him. I didn't want any of that to ruin the day. It could wait until tomorrow, when I was a vampire who might have a chance of getting answers.

Technically, I had the power to get whatever I wanted from him now, but I absolutely wasn't going to abuse that. Kol had trusted me with this power over him, and I had abused it without realizing. Now that I knew the truth, I absolutely wasn't gonna do that.

Would things be this way forever? Would I always be able to control him this way? I hoped not. They had said that they didn't believe me becoming a vampire would change it. If anything, it would just make it permanent, in a way that couldn't be changed, but there was a piece of me that hoped maybe, just maybe, dying would release him.

I wanted this to be a relationship, not a dictatorship. Aside from how bad it was in our relationship aspect, we needed to be good parents to our children. We couldn't do that well, couldn't talk about things, if Kol just submitted to my will, if everything I said just went. That's not how parents and partners were supposed to be, and I didn't want Theia and Alastor growing up seeing their Dad's submission, thinking that's how things were supposed to be—because they absolutely weren't.

So I held onto the idea that dying would fix this, that when Kol made me into a vampire, I would be able to tell him something without him bending over to do what I told him.

 _Do not let this ruin your last night._

It was hard to remember that I planned to wait to ask Kol what he had been up to all day until tomorrow when I made it downstairs, into the massively open and white living room of the Phoenix home. Most of the rooms here were light colored, if not actually white, and they were large and open, though still touched with the elegance that the Original family seemed to have surrounding them. Klaus definitely prepared for a lot of people when he had the house designed and built.

Kol was downstairs waiting for me, looking beyond amazing. Since I had come back, he had only let his scruff come back one time, when I begged him to—forgetting that he had to. I didn't remember until two days later when I saw it, and it hit me that he didn't have a choice.

Since then, I had left it alone, letting him keep himself well kempt the way that he enjoyed doing. I loved seeing him with a fresh haircut, dressed as sharply as a Mikaelson would be, but sometimes, remembering that there was more to him than the Mikaelson part was nice.

It helped me remember how this all started, aside from me pulling the dagger out of his chest. It had started because I was drawn to him, drawn to the piece of him that had been buried under centuries of hurt and betrayal. Most didn't see it because of how buried it was, but my heart found it, as if it had some sort of soul detector attached—as if it knew where the missing piece of me was, hiding behind the man buried in hurt.

Dressed sharply, speaking softly to Bonnie with his eyes checking the room around them to ensure no one was listening . . . this had been the two of them all day. I learned that Bonnie planned to have one last day as a human as well, and she was dressed for her date with Jeremy. She said that what better day to turn than the day I turned, so we could go through this new vampire thing together.

Technically, most of the people here were new vampires, and those that weren't were either old vampires or the oldest vampires. I knew what she meant, though. We'd be starting this together, on the exact same day. A hundred years in the future, we'd be just as strong as one another, without an edge—except my magic, but I would never hurt Bonnie, especially with magic. It would've been pretty awful to do, like rubbing salt in the wound that would probably always be open, just like it was for Kol. He missed magic so much, and Bonnie probably always would as well.

His eyes suddenly noticed me standing there, and whatever he had been saying fell to oblivion. He stopped talking entirely, stood there with his eyes shining brighter than the chandelier hanging down by the staircase, and his mouth remained open, at least a little. It was as if he was seeing me the night of our first date, and suddenly that was all I could remember. We were innocent then, which was not a word I imagined he would ever like me to use to describe him, but we were so new to love. We had no idea what was coming for us, and I sometimes wondered if that had actually been the night that I got pregnant. We went for hours, over and over, so it made sense because we had no idea it was even possible.

Yet the proof that it was sat in their adorable little baby seats. They were rockers that could convert into toddler rocking chairs as they outgrew the baby part of it, the part that leaned them back and dangled animal rattles above them.

"Are you ready to go, love?"

Kol calling me darling had been endearing from the first time I heard it. It was something he said to everyone, but he had stopped saying it after I came along, for whatever reason, and eventually, darling became love. Because I became his love, and even if he called others darling in the future, I didn't imagine there would be another love.

I pressed my smile together, reaching a hand out to take his, and nodded. "Wait. Almost." I stepped past him and walked carefully into the living room, where Theia and Alastor were distracted by the animals above them. Nonetheless, I knelt down and kissed the top of their heads.

Kol joined me, kneeling in front of our children with a bright smile, and his fingers touched both of their cheeks, making Theia smile wider than I think she ever had.

Seriously, she was a very noticeable Daddy's girl. It was almost sad how much she loved her dad, but it was too cute to be even remotely sad.

"Seriously, these two are too freaking cute," Caroline informed me, and I noticed that she and Rebekah were close by, watching over them.

"Well, Caroline, they really didn't have much choice."

Rebekah rolled her eyes at the sound of her brother's arrogance. "You should leave, lest your ego smother us all. Darcy, darling, you have the patience of a saint."

Kol began laughing the moment Rebekah told him to leave, but the laughter only continued further at her praise of my patience. Truth of it was, I didn't have all that much patience, but his ego didn't really bother me. It never actually had, and maybe that was because of how well he could back up the things he said.

The place that Kol took me to dinner was almost a perfect replica of the restaurant we had gone on our first date, down to an almost identical décor. There were enough differences that I could believe that Kol hadn't been in and out all day compelling the restaurant to change their entire décor for the night, but it was still in the back of my mind.

The food was actually better, and the wine was definitely a plus to the entire thing. It was sweet, beyond smooth, and I asked Kol if I could drink the whole bottle. He just laughed at me and poured me another cup.

I could probably do whatever I wanted . . . which had a lot of promise, the more I stared at him in his fitted button up and jacket, the more I watched his own eyes burn with something more than just desire.

When I decided to go on a date for my last night, I wanted to do things. I wanted to explore Phoenix, in a way that I hadn't gotten a chance to do much. We took the twins around town some, but everyone was still so paranoid. If the twins and I went out, at least two Mikaelsons came, along with all of the twins' hybrids, and of course Prisca and Shea had to come to ensure no one from the Gemini happened to be there and happened to spot up.

There was no way they could find us. We were all cloaked, and why would we be in Phoenix?

Still, all I had wanted to do was explore Phoenix, but I found myself wanting something more instead. It was pretty much a given that Kol and I would have sex one final time while I was human, but I wanted to do it more than once. Truth be told, I liked the idea of having sex until midnight, getting Kol's blood to turn me, and getting right back to it after I completed the transition. That sounded like a pretty fun time.

I _was_ told that I could do whatever I wanted . . . .

Kol led me out of the restaurant, a soft smile on his lips with his eyes melted into the warmest of chocolate. "Now, the night is yours, love, but I heard that there was this spectacular modern art show tonight."

I didn't mean to laugh, but with the restaurant we had just walked out of, it was impossible to not, thinking back to the fun we'd had on our first date, on the night that started all of this.

"That sounds pretentious and stiff and boring."

"And the art would be very disappointing," he promised.

I stopped suddenly to pull his lips to mine, to place a soft kiss on his own soft lips, and though he was smiling, that didn't stop him from placing a hand along my face, from holding me carefully to avoid messing up the braided bun I had put my hair into.

"I don't want tonight to be about things we've done," I whispered, the second my lips were no longer touching his.

I loved seeing the smile form, one that I had only ever seen when he was looking at me. Kol could smile with the best of them, and he could make a smile look damn good, better than anyone I knew, but there was always this one smile that I had only ever seen when his eyes were on me, when he was taking in certain details about me that he found beautiful.

"Alright," he murmured, his words like the sweetest velvet. "What would you like to do then?"

"Mmm. I'll give you a hint." I rubbed my painted lips together, with a brown red that wouldn't come off so easily, and stepped back away from him. His eyebrows pulled up, but his mind was rolling in the same wonderfully steamy places mine had already been—and maybe his had been there with me all night. "He's tall, probably has the most handsome face of anyone I've ever met."

He smirked. "Sounds like a tool."

"I'm rather fond of him." I let my fingers run along the folds of his dark blazer, the nasty taste of my lip touching my tongue as my teeth pulled my bottom lip in. "And he's always very well dressed."

He laughed, though he was definitely turning to Sexy Street with me. "Yes, well, you didn't see me when you were gone."

My fingers were still on the folds of his jacket, and they froze there, all semblance of a smile leaving my expression as my eyes fell down, towards the collar of his grey button-up. It was a normal grey, maybe the same grey feeling he had inside of him for those two months without answers. There hadn't been much talk about what happened with him, other than informing me that he had bound himself to my will, but I had seen him on New Year's Eve. He wasn't the man that he was now; he was quite empty, in a way that I don't know he ever had been before.

Or maybe he _had_ been that empty before. It just wasn't as obvious because he never knew what it was like to be whole.

It was crazy to think about, that somehow I made an Original vampire feel whole, but if the short but wild time Kol and I had spent together taught me anything, it was that even the most impossible things were possible.

His hands grabbed onto the sides of my face, gently, and his eyes tightened at the corners, to hide some of the pain that began to seep in. "I'm sorry, Darcy. I didn't mean to upset you."

I shook my head. "I guess, for the most part, I've come to terms with it all. There's just . . . ."

"What is it?" He dropped his hands so they could find mine, so he could wrap his hands around mine and give me the best comfort he knew how, in the middle of the streets of Phoenix.

"I want to know what exactly led you to the moment where you decided to bind yourself to me."

"Oh." I hadn't realized that his body had tensed until I saw it relax a little, and the pain was falling away as quickly as it had appeared. "We tried every locator spell we could find, even some of the darker ones. We tried absolutely anything we could think of, but none of it worked. Every time we tried something new, every time it failed . . . I swear a piece of me died a little. I was in the middle of destroying the Salvatore library when Elijah came in and said that he found something. It was a long shot, and absolutely no one in my family wanted to do it. I knew it was all we had, and it had to be done, for both you and the twins. It was the only hope I had left."

I swallowed, and though I wanted to look away, I was lost in the open depths of his soul, in the emotions that ran deeper than I may ever understand—I wasn't an Original with the heightened emotions like he was. I loved him with all I had in me, with all the available capability to do so, but I wasn't able to feel things the way he was. As much as I hated to say it, or think about it, I could never love him the way he loved me.

"Why weren't you afraid?" I whispered.

His thumbs brushed across the skin of my cheeks, a smile growing the more he touched my skin. "Because you're you, Darcy Gilbert, and there is no one else out there quite like you. You're far more beautiful on the inside than you are on the outside, which is an impossibility all on its own because you are absolutely stunning on the outside."

We weren't usually ones for grand displays of affection in mixed company, but I couldn't help myself. My lips grabbed onto his with more fire than I actually intended, but it was the fire within my soul, the passion that had to be stifled too many times. We were parents. We were living in a house _full_ of vampires, and it was just something we didn't get to do as often as we would've liked.

Tonight was different. It was my last night to be alive, and maybe it was wrong, but damn it, I wanted to be absolutely selfish again. I had never regretted taking selfish moments for myself before, and I didn't imagine I'd start tonight.

"I want to experience it," I breathed, ripping myself from him and forcing myself to swallow through my tightened throat, which happened after the constant beating of my heart inside my chest, increasing the blood flow throughout my entire body. "One last time as a human, and then again as a vampire, so I can have it all fresh on my mind, to remember exactly how much different it is."

His lips pulled apart, revealing his perfect teeth hiding behind them, and he reached down to grab onto one of my hands again. "Of course, love. Where would you like to go?"

My face scrunched. "Somewhere private."

"Of course."

"Without a family of vampires downstairs to overhear."

I hadn't realized we were moving away from the restaurant, towards the street Kol had parked the car on, until we were standing next to it. With everything being so chaotic, we pretty much just had the SUVs to travel in, but there was one car—a Jaguar sedan. That was what we had taken, and I stood next to it now, staring at myself in the sleek black reflection, lit up by the lights of the city around us.

Kol pulled the door open for me and smiled. "I have just the place."

Watching Kol move around the car at a completely human speed was amusing, mostly because I knew it annoyed him. It didn't show when he got in, though, and he instead reached over to kiss me, this time within the privacy of the dark tinted windows.

His teeth grabbed onto my bottom lip just as he pulled away, and his eyes were ravenous. "You have no idea how good it feels to be alive."

I melted into the soft leather seats behind me, though my eyes remained on his. My lips must've been turned up because his eyes were absolutely shining, even past the lust.

"So I'm waiting to discover that you're not actually a gentleman."

That ripped him from his trance, pulling out a rather joyous laugh, and he started up the car. It sounded like it was purring as it came to life, and Kol barely even turned his head to see if it was safe to leave.

"Allow me to show you."

I swear he had somehow found a way to grab onto both of my lungs, or maybe it was just the lust overpowering me in a dangerously powerful way. It was probably the latter, but it was more fun to blame him.

The ride was mostly silent, the two of us just enjoying the music playing in the background—okay, _I_ was enjoying it and Kol was trying not to let it annoy him too badly—but that didn't stop him from touching me. The touches were moments, his fingers grazing the skin of my thigh, just beneath where the skirt had risen as I sat down.

He knew what he was doing, though, even if he could make it look seamless, like a happy accident. The fire in his eyes that scorched the air in the car around us, despite the AC working perfectly fine, told me that he knew what he was doing, if I didn't already know because he was Kol.

By the time we got to the hotel, I didn't care much about seeing where we were, what kind of hotel. It could've been a skeevy hole in the wall motel, and I wouldn't have cared in the slightest.

All I cared about was getting us both to a bed, naked.

We didn't have to stop at the reception desk, and I realized then that Kol had known. He had prepared ahead for this so we _could_ just get from the car to the bed, without interruptions.

The doors of the elevator closed, and it was all I could do to breathe. It was a necessity, a very human thing to do, but with him watching me through the reflection of the doors in front of us, I didn't remember the first thing about it.

It wasn't just because he was watching me. It was the _how_. Had he just been super horny, looking at me as if I was a snack to devour, it might not have been so intense, but that wasn't what I saw staring at me, taking in each detail of me in the distorted mirror.

There was the purest form of desire, the kind that came with a man in love. Without love, this kind of passion couldn't exist within someone, and that was the way he looked at me—as if I was his greatest treasure that he was dying to explore, the greatest piece of his soul he couldn't wait to fill him again.

The doors opened to release me from my trance, and Kol didn't lose a second. His hand laced around mine, pulling me gently but hard enough to have me moving behind him.

Why wouldn't I follow him anyways?

The room was just a few down from the elevator, and Kol already had the key in hand by the time we reached the door. Neither of us wasted a moment getting inside, and it was all I could do to not use his body to close the door behind him.

I didn't mean to spin back towards him as quickly as I did, but the heels of my shoes caught, sending me falling towards him. He was there to catch me, and the skin of my face rose in temperature, the blood probably pooling brightly enough for him to see.

There was no laughter in his eyes, no humor. A breath passed through his nose, but the smile was much softer—his _eyes_ much softer.

"God, I love you."

I pulled him against me, wrapping my arms around his neck as tightly as I could manage. It didn't compare to the way he held me against him, but I didn't care. My skin felt like it was on fire in the best of ways, and it was as if each second became an hour, a slow torturous moment keeping me from what I wanted.

Still, being in his arms like this . . . I could live there forever.

His grip relented, only so he could slide out of his jacket, and his arm ducked down to grab onto my legs, to pull me into his arms. I would never complain about being carried this way by Kol. It put me close to him, put me in an intimate embrace that I honestly wondered if he had ever done for someone before.

I was his first in so many ways, but all that I cared about was being his _last_.

He laid me on the bed and grabbed onto my lips with his, only for a moment. It was painful, and had I not seen the way his eyes were moving lower, I might've protested.

"I am a bit curious."

I let myself sink into the pillows behind me, only one half of my mouth curling up into a smirk. "Hmm?"

"Where did this Darcy come from?" He grabbed onto one of my feet, to bring attention to the red heel covering it.

They weren't completely out of the ordinary for me—just platform Mary Jane heels, with cute bows over the foot instead of a single boring strap. The height was a bit more than I was used to wearing, but it was a decision Rebekah had helped me make the last time we went out shopping, just the two of us.

The old Darcy wasn't here anymore. I wasn't some girl living in the shadow of Elena anymore, and it was time to stop pretending that I was. That didn't mean I had to completely reinvent who I was, how I dressed, but it was time that I took risks, wore things I wanted without fear of how it looked on me, how I might ruin it.

I tried to hide my blush by focusing on his lips, but the smirk was wild on them, bringing a devious light to his eyes, and my body burned all over again. "Rebekah made me do it."

His eyebrows rose. "What?"

I sighed. "That came out wrong. She _did_ make me do it, but only because I wanted to. I'm not . . . I'm not the scared little girl I once was. Damn it, I'm a mom now, and I'm about to be a vampire." His eyes lit up with the reminder, but it wasn't a sexual excitement—purely love, the reminder that I was going to be immortal soon. "So it's time I stopped pretending that I'm the same person I was. Because I'm not."

He pulled the shoe off my foot, moving to do the same to the other foot, and he climbed back onto me. My mouth began watering at just the sight, of his eyes staring so intently into me, and my chest hitched, my gaze lost somewhere between his lips and his shoulders dominating over me.

He pulled me up for a moment, sat me up so that I was almost level with him for a change, but it wasn't to kiss me or do anything super cute. His fingers moved to the zipper on the back of my backless dress. It was a lot lower than I think he expected it to be, just above the skirt, but it gave him a chance to run his fingers down the skin of my back, to light my body up all over again.

The straps from the dress fell to the side, and he couldn't stop himself anymore. He had been moving carefully, slowly, to take in every moment of this last time while I was human, but he lost it at the sight of the dress falling to my hips. Backless dresses made bras difficult, so I didn't have one on.

He pressed me back into the pillows, and his lips left mine stranded, only so his fingers could move to undo the buttons of his shirt. I tried not to let myself get too excited, but hot damn, I _was_ excited.

When we _were_ able to have sex, it was usually quick, and it was always quiet. We hadn't gotten to enjoy one another fully since the last time we were in a hotel, when he was making me feel comfortable in my new skin in the best of ways.

I hadn't looked back since then. In fact, I had gone in a completely new direction. I was _confident_ in the curves of my body, in the increased size of my breasts. I had pumped myself dry before getting ready, but that didn't mean they hadn't grown an entire cup size on their own.

He took one into his mouth, barely taking time to shrug his shirt from his shoulders, and my feet began rubbing together, my toes curling. With the breastfeeding thing, Kol knew not to play with them too much—he actually learned that the hard way, which was mortifying until we both ended up laughing about it together—so with a warm breath against the hardened nipple, he let his lips trail down, to the lacy underwear I had specifically chosen for tonight.

At the sight of them, his eyes grew ravenous, and he pulled me up towards him. I didn't know what he was doing, not until he stood up. With a small smirk, I tucked my legs beneath me and bit down on my bottom lip, giving him the best innocent eyes I could possibly manage.

I watched him undo his pants, and he stepped out of them effortlessly. Seeing Kol in nothing but his boxer-briefs that clung to him perfectly was a horrible tease, and I imagined sexy panties were the same way.

A low growl ripped out of his throat, and he ripped me up so that my lips could reach his. His hands were tight around my arms, but not so tight that they would break. Honestly, I wondered if they would bruise, but it didn't matter. I'd be dead soon anyways.

His hand moved just beneath the nape of my neck, holding my head in place, but I broke the kiss by grabbing onto his bottom lip with my teeth.

"You must be hungry."

He knew in an instant what I was suggesting, only had it confirmed when I rolled my neck to the side. The last time he fed from me had been before I left, the two days we had gotten away from it all after Klaus started following me everywhere to find out who killed his hybrids and broke his neck.

I couldn't even remember how long ago that was, but I think we both wanted to feel this, one last time.

It didn't have to be the last time, though, did it?

I couldn't see his eyes darken with the way that my head had rolled, but I felt his teeth sink into my skin, felt the blood leaving my system. I didn't mean to begin breathing heavily, but as weird as it was, I missed this.

To me, this was one of the moments where our love for one another, our trust for one another, showed the most. I trusted him to not kill me, even though he was a ruthless, blood crazed Original vampire. He loved me enough to not kill me, even if the darker parts of him had never left someone alive in the same situation before.

How many times had he drank from me without even thinking about killing me?

I felt his teeth leave me, but he didn't just bite his wrist like usual. He instead tilted his head to the side a bit, pulling back from me enough that I could see his smirk.

"You're going to be a vampire soon, love. You want blood? Take it."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"Take it." He ran a finger around the area he usually bit me. "Right here is the best place, where you can get the most blood in a single area."

I leaned closer, but my eyes darted up to him. "How am I supposed to do this?"

"With your teeth." He smirked. "Darcy Gilbert, you are going to make a lousy vampire."

"You would be the second Mikaelson to tell me that," I grumbled, but I stared at the spot he pointed to, the place I was supposed to take blood for myself. "I don't have fangs."

"That only helps," he assured me. "Using just your teeth will suffice. I promise."

"I . . . don't want to hurt you."

He snorted. "You're hurting me more by keeping me from what I need more than you can even imagine."

Heat flushed through my mostly naked body, lingering in the lower parts of me longest, but my eyes remained on the place on his neck, where he told me to take his blood for myself.

I used his shoulders to pull myself up high enough, to get my lips where they needed to be. My mind was reeling, but I didn't hesitate to _try_. Wrapping my lips around the skin, letting my teeth scrape it . . . and then I just did it, bit down as hard as I possibly could.

A breath passed through his lips, but I felt the teeth sink into him. It was hard to describe the way it felt, no different than chewing through a piece of steak—except the moment my teeth tore into the muscle, blood began pouring into my mouth.

It didn't take much to heal the wound, but I didn't know how long we'd be going at it. I didn't know how long I had before it was time to kill myself, so I wanted to ensure it was still in my system.

I pulled back away from him, and my eyes darted to his face, finding his eyes closed. "I did it."

I was back against the pillows in a second, with Kol's lips against mine with a fervent urgency. I wasn't sure exactly when his underwear had come off, but I felt mine being ripped from my body, just moments before he began to press into me.

Everyone told me it was better than I could even imagine as a vampire, but I couldn't even imagine it being _any_ better.

How could it really get better when it was already the best feeling in the world?

* * *

 **A/N: So I've gotten pretty far ahead. I'm actually working on chapter 26 as I post this. I don't wanna start posting chapter after chapter, which is how I seem to be getting them done now, as I still have to leave room to watch the _Originals_ like I need to do. I don't have to watch the whole series, but I've been looking into the Ancestors, and I realized to fully understand them, I have to watch season 1 as well, and I don't have to watch season 4 because the Hollow doesn't matter to me. I don't even think I need to finish season 3 fully (although I'm sure I will for fun after getting that far into the series) but that's a lot of bingeing to do. Binge watching TV shows is easier than writing with a toddler, however, so watching the show shouldn't be that difficult. It will just take some time, and I need to have chapters to fall back on while I'm watching.**

 **Enough about that rant. I hope you guys enjoy the story so far! When I first had the idea for this story, it was meant to end after this part, and to get to the end, it wasn't supposed to be as intense and in depth as it became. To be honest, part 2 was just supposed to be Darcy finding her way back, the Gemini confronting them, and then everyone getting their happy ever after, but a part 3 has come about without just milking the story too far, and it's become something more, something . . . honestly, something I'm rather proud of.**

 **I hope you guys are enjoying this story. This has been an emotional story for me. None of my other stories have hit me emotionally while writing them quite like this one. The past two chapters I've been working on, I've been pretty much crying the entire time, and that's just in this section. Not all the emotional pulls have been lows, but my goodness. My heart. 3 I just hope I'm able to portray the things the writing and characters make me feel even decently, so you can experience the things I do as well.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	19. 18: Unbound

"Because days come and go,  
But my feelings for you are forever."

 _Forever_ : Papa Roach

* * *

After hours wrapped in one another, forgetting the rest of the world, I determined that there was no way that sex could possibly be better, no matter what anyone said. If it was any better than it was, I honestly didn't know how I'd stop myself. It was hard enough as it was, but if it got better?

I was going to be a problem.

Eventually, I noticed the clock said 11:37, and we had to hurry. We had gotten so lost in the time together that we forgot to keep up with the time. There was absolutely no way we'd make it back home in time, not after finishing. Even though we both hurried to get dressed, midnight was almost ten minutes away.

I slid the last shoe on my foot and stole a glance at Kol, but he wasn't watching me. Most times, he watched me get dressed, as he wanted to savor every moment of me, but he didn't even realize I was dressed.

His eyes were on his phone, as if there was something more than the time to check on it.

"What are you doing?"

Kol tucked his phone into his pocket, turning back towards me with a soft smile. "Good, you're dressed." He was in front of me in a second, his arms snaking around my waist. "Are you sure you're ready to head back?"

Under the power of his fiery eyes, the desire that was liable to consume us both, it was hard to remember my name, much less anything, but I managed and nodded. "We're already late. There's no way we're gonna make it in time to turn me at 12:01. I guess you could turn me in the car."

"Right."

With the desire shifting back, with something else fighting to remain hidden, it was easy to pull myself from the trance, to focus on something that had been bugging me all day—Kol acting strange.

"Okay, seriously, what is going on?" I demanded. "Please, Kol. I wasn't gonna ask until tomorrow, but it's interfering with my day, and I'm annoyed."

He rolled his eyes but smiled. "You're horribly spoiled now. I love it."

"Stop distracting me." My eyes squeezed shut. "Shit. No. I . . . please, baby. Just tell me what's going on."

A soft sigh passed through his lips. "We may have found something."

My eyes popped open, only so I could get a good look at his face, at anything I might find to answer questions his vague statement brought to mind. "Something? What are you talking about?"

He rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Bonnie has been looking into a way to undo this binding spell the entire time, and I told her not to worry about it, but she may have found something."

"Oh my gosh!" I didn't mean to squeal, but this was _exactly_ what I wanted, more than anything in the world. Well, an eternity with Kol was what I wanted more than anything, but I wanted to be able to spend it without constantly checking myself, making sure that I wasn't controlling him accidentally. I wanted us to be free to be partners. "Why didn't you tell me before? This is amazing!"

"It changes a lot of things, Darcy," he murmured, and though his eyes sparkled with the sight of my delight, there was hesitance in his pressed lips, in the stiff muscles of his jaw.

"I don't care what it changes!" I insisted. "I want you to have your free will back."

He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, and his eyes darted to the door. "I couldn't tell you about it before, and I didn't want to talk about it on our date."

That set off some red flags, but I wasn't exactly _scared_ of what he was saying—just confused, enough that the excitement was actually dying a little inside. "What do you mean?"

He didn't get a chance to answer because there was a knock on the door. Kol didn't even hesitate, didn't check to see who might be standing outside of the door. He just rushed over to pull it open.

Standing just outside the door was Bonnie and Jeremy, both dressed for their own date they had been on—until this point, apparently.

I folded my arms over my chest. "What the hell is going on?"

Bonnie and Jeremy stepped inside, and Kol quickly shut the door back behind them, as if they were trying to ensure no one saw them enter the room. This was clearly some big secret, but why? What was so bad about whatever they had to say?

"I found something that might remove the binding spell," Bonnie explained, after listening to the sound of the door shut behind them.

"So let's do it!" I tried to contain my excitement, but I could feel my fingers twitching anyways.

She shook her head. "It's not that simple, Darcy. In order to remove the spell, I have to turn you through magic."

"What?"

It wasn't hard to figure out what she was saying, to figure out what the big deal was. She was turning me . . . into an Original vampire, the same way that the Mikaelsons had been turned. It took me too long to notice the duffle bag on Jeremy's shoulders, but it was very clear that this was what all the secrecy was about.

They were turning me through a spell, making me an Original vampire.

"I'm going to do the same spell that Esther did on her children," she explained. "It will make you an Original vampire, but the only way to use that to remove the binding spell is to bind _you_ to Kol, the same way their lives are bound to the white oak."

"Okay."

Kol rubbed his hand across his mouth, a line forming at the bridge of his nose. "I'm still uncertain about this. What if you're bound to me the same way that I'm bound to you?"

"Aw, come on," I said, and I practically danced over to grab onto his arm. "It'll all cancel each other out! We'll be fine."

"As crazy as it sounds, that's exactly what this should do," Bonnie informed me. "By binding you to his life, however, if anything is to happen to him, you go down with him."

I looked over at Bonnie and nodded. "Okay."

"I'm a bit alarmed that you're so quick to say that."

"The same would happen if I turned from your bloodline," I reminded him, not letting myself let go of the hold I had on his arm.

"That is true." Despite the uncertainty he clearly felt about it all—he would obviously much rather have himself bound to me than the other way around—he smiled, and his eyes drifted over to Bonnie. "Are you ready?"

Jeremy set the bag on the hotel bed, without thinking much about it. He unzipped it, but his eyes darted up, towards the other side of the room. I could see the corners of his lips pulling up, and I wondered what he found so funny.

"I'm shocked you didn't even touch the wine."

My eyes followed his gaze, towards the other side of the room. I had been so focused on Kol, on having him in all of the best ways, that I hadn't taken the time to examine the room we were in. It didn't matter to me. There was a bed, and that was all that mattered.

I had missed the flowers sitting on the table in the corner, the chilled bottle of wine with two glasses sitting next to it. The romantic effort that Kol had put into this, even with it being short notice and with all the other stuff he had clearly been up to today, had gone completely unnoticed.

My bottom lip poked out, and I walked over to the other side of the bed, to touch my fingers against the soft petals of the roses. They were cool to the touch, and I wanted to bring them with me, to touch them when I became a vampire. I wanted to know how much different even the simplest things in life were.

"How did you miss that?" Bonnie asked, though she was grinning.

"I was distracted." Though I said the words, my eyes hadn't left the large red bouquet. I called it my worst cliché, my love for roses, but they were stunning, even if cliché and beyond overused.

"Gross." Jeremy continued pulling stuff out of the bag, tossing it to the end of the bed.

I bit back my laugh and glanced at my brother. His eyes weren't focused on me, instead the bag he was unloading. So far, he had pulled out a large cup and a blood bag, along with some herbs—probably magic herbs—but I glanced at him just in time to see two small vials of blood being removed as well.

"What are those?" I asked, without thinking much about it.

Jeremy glanced up at me now. "You sure you wanna know?"

I immediately turned to stare at Kol, allowed my eyes to widen. "Please tell me that's not the blood of our children."

"I wasn't sure if your blood would work, so I got the next best thing to doppelgänger blood," Bonnie admitted. "I'm sorry, Darcy. We didn't want to do it, but we didn't have a choice."

"No!" I rubbed my hands over my face. "This was supposed to be done _without_ their blood. Well . . . the adapted version of the plan, when I realized that I didn't want to hurt them."

Jeremy was suddenly in front of me, with both hands placed on my shoulders. It was still hard to get used to, the fact that both of my siblings were now vampires—to better protect my children—but sure enough, there he suddenly stood, eyes soft.

"I took the blood from them myself," he said. "Alastor didn't even cry. Theia did a little, but as soon as I took the needle out and the wound healed, she was fine, stopped entirely."

"I'm honestly impressed you were able to do it, with everyone watching them so carefully." Kol's eyes remained on me, though they softened. "The only time he was able to do it was while they were napping."

I tried to think back to the events of the day, but it was hard to decide which nap they took it from them. Right now, Theia and Alastor were napping a lot, sleeping more than they were awake, but that was good.

There were two naps it could've been, when I heard Theia cry, but by the time I got up there, she had already stopped and fallen back asleep.

"So does anyone else know?"

Bonnie shook her head. "Just the four of us. Kol was worried his siblings might not agree with the decision. We're gonna try to keep it between us all."

With midnight quickly approaching—only a few minutes away—Bonnie mixed everything together, taking a pretty large amount of Kol's blood. She was whispering under her breath, putting everything into the cup, but as the last ingredient was added, the blood of my children, it all came to an end.

"It's finished."

I stared at the cup in her hand, took just a moment to look at the rest of the people in the room. Jeremy looked at peace, like maybe he was just as ready for me to be a vampire as anyone else. There was a time where he opposed it, but in the defense of my kids, he was willing to do anything, even if it meant giving up his life.

Bonnie knew that she had just done something dark with her magic, but she didn't have to think of the consequences. She didn't have to worry about losing her magic because it would be gone in the morning, after she turned into a vampire.

Then there was Kol. I swear, I had never seen him look so _ready_. There were obviously times he was ready to jump into bed, to do things together even outside of the bedroom, but this was the moment he had waited for . . . honestly, I didn't know how long. I didn't know when he had decided that he wanted to do whatever it took to turn me, but it had been a long time. I remembered waking up the morning after our first date, after he found out that I was an untriggered werewolf, and I remembered him insisting that we would find a way, without siring me to his brother.

We had found many ways, but this one topped them all.

He noticed my eyes were on him, and his smile grew. "Do you want to know the moment I knew I was going to do whatever it took to make you a vampire?"

"Yes." I walked around the bed once more, to take the cup from Bonnie's hand, but I hesitated, waiting for Kol to continue. "I am a bit curious."

His hand came up to touch my cheek, to rub his thumb across it, but his smile didn't waver. "We were coming out of the art gallery. You looked as timeless as always under the light of the moon, with the dim lighting from within the gallery, and I saw this eyelash underneath your eye. I stopped to get it off, and you told me to make a wish. That was my wish, that no matter what I had to do, no matter what loopholes I had to find, I was going to find a way to make you immortal."

I held the cup up, almost like a toast. "Well, here's to you getting your wish."

With midnight only moments away, I didn't let myself get lost in the way he came undone, in the way his joy became overwhelming. It was beautiful, one of the most treasured sights I would ever see, but I wanted to see it through my new eyes. I wanted to experience life without normal human setbacks, without limitations.

I wanted to be completely free, to be who I sometimes wondered if I was meant to be. I used to say that nature intended for me to be stuck mortal, to never get a chance to be immortal, but everything about this felt right.

Maybe it was the pull to protect my children, the same way that so many had given up their life to protect my children. Arguments were made as far as Shea and Prisca went. They both insisted that it wasn't just for the kids of a stranger, that it was because their loves were immortal and they should be too, but Alaric, Jeremy, and Bonnie? What was their excuse?

This was what I wanted, though, and now . . . it was right. It was time.

It tasted pretty much like Kol's blood did, with a weird metallic aftertaste that I wasn't used to. There was something bitter as well, but I wasn't drinking this for pleasure. It was for a purpose, to start my new, undead life.

I swallowed every drop, placing the empty cup in Kol's hands, and I let out a breath. "So who's gonna kill me?"

"That would be me," Bonnie said, just moments before it all went black.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay. She finally turned.**

 **Not gonna lie, I _thought_ about having Klaus feed her his blood, force her to kill someone, and then kill her, bringing her back sired to him, but I decided that it wasn't the direction this story needed to go, and damn it, Kol deserves to be happy.**

 **I'm glad he and Davina got their happy ending in the show, assuming one of them don't tragically die in the last season (seriously, I will cry like a baby).**

 **Oh! I've also started on the _Originals_. Seriously, why haven't I watched this show before? Not even five episodes in, it's already very action packed, interesting, and rather violent. I timed it. First fifteen minutes into the show, someone had already lost a heart. Another was impaled, and then there were all the people slaughtered on the boat. There were probably more that I can't remember, but seriously.**

 **Anyways, I'm gonna keep watching as I go, but there is so much planned for part 3 that I'm honestly not entirely sure I won't have to make a part 4 or just make a _super_ long part 3. I'll have to see how it goes when I make the outline, and that can only be done once I get through most of season 3 of the _Originals_. Still, fun times ahead. :)**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	20. 19: A New Life

"I'm waking up.  
I feel it in my bones,  
Enough to make my systems blow.  
Welcome to the new age."

 _Radioactive_ : Imagine Dragons

* * *

A part of me expected to wake up in the hotel room. I mean, where else would I wake up? They couldn't exactly drag my dead body back through the lobby of the hotel, even with only the person at the service desk down there. There were still cameras.

But nope, my eyes opened to the room Kol and I shared, with the tall layered ceiling and plenty of open space for people to crowd around . . . waiting for me to wake up.

In transition. Holy shit.

I sat up quickly, taking a quick glance to the people in the room. The shades were drawn, but I didn't see light pushing on the other side of them, so I imagined it was still sometime in the darkness of the night, early morning.

Elena sat at the end of the bed, rolling the daylight ring around her finger, with Damon sitting next to her, one hand on her shoulder. I hadn't taken enough time to delight in the way their relationship had blossomed, with everything going on with the twins and safety precautions and what not, but in this moment of elation, all I could do was smile.

Alaric stood next to them, and I think he was the only one to notice where my smile was directed. We had had the conversation about Damon and Elena once, when time allowed for it. He admitted that Damon was horrible. He would never wish Damon on Elena, but he wished Elena on Damon. Alaric saw the things I did in Damon, that he was redeemable and a friend, so he secretly rooted for Damon and Elena, but he couldn't say that out-loud without remembering that Damon was a real dick sometimes.

Rebekah stood stiffly across the room, her arms folded over her chest to try and tame the impatience and unrest inside of her. If nothing else had happened over the month that the twins and I had been back, the relationship between Rebekah and I _had_ changed, drastically. It probably started with the first day she decided that we should have lunch together, that we should get to know one another better, and since then, she made it a point to do something, just the two of us, at least once a week.

It made me feel a bit bad for Sage, since she was clearly Finn's forever love, but I wasn't gonna protest getting closer with Kol's sister, with one of the aunts of my children.

Elijah stood next to Rebekah, with a more relaxed stance. One hand hid inside the pocket of his pants, but there was no jacket or tie making the rest of us feel uncomfortably plain. He was relaxed, simply waiting for me to wake up.

Shea and Prisca both waited near Elijah, maybe some kind of curiosity about it all. Shea had been the most understanding when I made the decision to wait, but Prisca insisted it was safest. Since I would retain my witch abilities, would actually have better access to them, it was the best course of action. Yet I had stood firm, and here I was . . . in transition to be an _Original_ vampire.

Jeremy and Bonnie stood next to the large closet Kol and I shared, both waiting with the anxiety that came with secrecy and uncertainty. Bonnie didn't have the confidence she should've in her magical abilities, but I had absolute faith in her. Kol obviously did, as he entrusted her with my life.

At this point, I didn't know any better way he might show someone his trust.

Caroline wasn't in here, but I knew everyone couldn't be in the room. Someone had to be waiting for Theia and Alastor to wake up, and I imagined Caroline was right on that, with her deep attachment to them.

I only stole quick glances at the people around the room, as I was more interested in the person sitting directly beside the bed, in a chair that had been moved from beside the window. I absolutely loved all of my family, which now included the Mikaelsons by some crazy twist of fate, but right now, this moment was something Kol and I had talked about. It was something I didn't want to believe in because it seemed so hopeless, yet here we were.

Except it was different. I was an Original vampire, with a werewolf curse waiting to be triggered.

Kol had shed his own jacket, simply remained in the untucked shirt and pants he had worn. At the sight of my eyes on him, his smile grew wider than I think he knew he could smile, and he leaned over to grab something off the bedside table next to me.

"Here, before you do anything, drink this."

I had heard that the bloodlust of someone in transition was the absolute worst. Even with someone who knew what was happening to them, the bloodlust was almost impossible to fight, maybe even impossible. So far, we hadn't seen anyone in transition fight the urge. Even Caroline, who had no idea why her body was screaming at her to drink blood, ended up completing the transition.

The moment I realized the cup existed, the moment the haze from waking up after dying had cleared, it was all I could smell. The aroma of it was strange, reminding me of soy sauce but with something much heavier.

I took it from his hands carefully, but I struggled to just stare, like I wanted to do. I wanted to take in the smell of it, to understand that this was the smell of blood—the smell that I would have to get used to ignoring sometimes, if the situation demanded I control my urges.

Right now was not that time, however, and every part of my body focused on nothing but the cup, on consuming the thick liquid inside. I didn't force myself through the pain anymore; I just turned it up and drank every drop.

My eyes remained closed while the warmth, the _power_ surged through me. I didn't want to think too much about it, but it felt _good_ , like nothing I had ever actually experienced before. As stupid as it sounded, it felt like every part of my body was dead, only to be brought to life by the almost sweet, yet still metallic taste of the blood I had just consumed.

I pressed my lips together but kept my eyes closed, for a few more moments. "It tastes different."

"It's your life force now, love."

How could a single moment change everything? People who were in transition into being a vampire were uncomfortable the more they remained in transition, but then they drank blood, and they were suddenly vampires. Just like that. Since I had drank it so quickly, I didn't experience the discomfort of being in transition, so through I felt as if I was now alive after drinking the blood, I didn't feel all that different.

But I _was_ different. I was an Original vampire, who had the power of siphoning.

Kol's voice alone was something magical, something that I wasn't actually prepared for. He had always been charming, with a voice of smooth velvet that could wrap around me and make me feel good, but this was clear, as if my ears had been plugged to the true sound, the sound that resonated through my ears and touched every part of me on the inside, in a profound and eternal way.

"In case you were wondering, it worked."

My eyes snapped open, and what I saw in front of me took my breath away, without the usual ache of oxygen missing from my lungs and bloodstream. This time, not breathing didn't hurt at all, and I imagined I'd die if I didn't breathe at _all_ —but I'd come back a little bit later.

Maybe I wouldn't die, though. Maybe my Original nature changed all of that.

There had always been gold inside the depths of the warm chocolate of his eyes, but I never realized just how many golden specks actually existed within the chocolate. It was dazzling. Everything about his face was mesmerizing, and I didn't want to look away, even at the sight of the smirk pulling at the corners of his lips. I didn't care if he noticed me taking in the perfect features of his face. It was a face worth taking in every single detail.

Right now, however, there was so much I wanted to ask, so much I wanted to explore. As wonderful as his face was, we . . . we had forever to explore it, to take in the true beauty of one another—though he had already done that. When he told me that he noticed every single piece of me, I hadn't realized just how right he was about that.

"It worked?" I whispered.

He nodded, though his eyes remained on me. "I felt it the moment you completed the transition. I no longer sensed you."

Rebekah pushed herself off the wall, the slightest noise of the action ripping my attention from Kol in an instant. "Wait. Turning her broke the binding spell?"

"The more Bonnie studied it, the more she believed that it might," Kol said, before Bonnie had a chance to try and lie through it all. Since she was still human, with her heart still fluttering every time she tried to lie . . . _holy hell._

I could smell it, even though she stood a good five to ten feet from me. It was a faint smell, but with one breath in, I could smell the blood as it moved through her veins, could hear the pulse quicken under the duress of the lie we had to perfectly weave.

I knew that I had to distract everyone, both myself and the others who might hear Bonnie's still quickening heartbeat, so I did the only thing I knew to do—bring the focus back to Kol, back to _me_. "Kol, we did it. All that talking, all those plans I thought pointless . . . we did it!"

I didn't think his smile could become more radiant until I saw it now, with nothing obstructing my vision. Magic worked wonders for the senses, and it was in that moment that I completely understood what everyone was trying to tell me. Sex was _going_ to be better.

I was definitely in for a lot of trouble.

"We did, didn't we?" he murmured.

Jeremy snorted from beside me, though his arms remained folded over his chest, even with the flicker of light across his eyes and smile. "Is no one going to tell her that she just drank her own blood?"

My eyes rounded, focused back on Kol almost immediately. I didn't let myself be distracted by how easily my attention was ripped away from the most beautiful person in the world, the only person I wanted to look at right now. "Um, what?"

"We weren't, no." Kol sighed and rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. "Call me paranoid, but it was an extra precaution."

"I guess that makes sense." I didn't think too much about it and instead brought the subject around to something I found far more important, something we _all_ would find more important. "Am I safe?"

"Safe?" Elena's voice reminded me of the softest music, a sweet lullaby that could somehow wash away any fears and uncertainties, and I wondered if it was how Damon got through most days. "Of course you're safe."

I shook my head. "Am I safe to hold my kids?"

"I . . . I'm not sure." Kol took a deep breath. "We can test you around others, take you into the city and let you get used to people before you try—if you would like."

Bonnie surprised everyone when she came to sit next to me, but more than that, she _hugged_ me. In the middle of my fear and uncertainty, in the middle of my mind reeling to try and understand if I could even be safe around my own children, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me against her.

The heat from beneath her skin, from the blood rushing through her neck and down her arms, was suddenly surrounding me, taking over every thought. I knew what this heat was, and my mouth began to water, on instinct. My mind was racing with ideas, but something beneath my skin caught fire, a strange sensation that I couldn't explain. My teeth ached, echoing a pain that resonated throughout the rest of my body, and all I wanted to do was sink my teeth in, to kill her.

I could feel my eyes darkening, even before I noticed it reflected in the mirror, but seeing it, seeing the darkness that came when a vampire fed . . . I was so terrified. Not of the vampire, but of the vampire coming out, all on its own.

This was _Bonnie_.

Ripping myself from her arms, I took advantage of my new speed for the first time. The muscles moved with precision, without pain, and it was easy, effortless. It was a beautiful feeling.

Tears blurred my vision, though I could still see around them more clearly than I ever had. "What . . . why didn't I . . . I can't . . . I can't be near them."

I could barely think straight, barely wrap my head around anything that was happening. With a simple hug from my friend, the monster was ripping out of me, so what about my children? What would the monster decide to do to them?

I wanted to puke, wanted to curl into a ball and kick myself for the choice I had made, without even thinking of the consequences. Why would I have thought about it? Everyone else held them without issue, even Jeremy and Alaric right after they had turned. The darkness didn't come out around their eyes. They didn't think about killing anyone, not even Bonnie or me, but I _had_.

Jeremy could make love to Bonnie, and I couldn't even hug her. What did that mean I was going to do to the twins?

Kol was on his feet in an instant, holding his hands out towards me in an attempt to calm me down. "We don't know that yet. There is vampire blood in their system, so it might make it easier." His words didn't dry the tears in my eyes, but I watched his features soften, watched something that almost resembled a smile forming. "Everything will be fine, Darcy. You're being too hard on yourself. You're a newly awakened vampire, and you're emotions are heightened. Just try and relax."

Like a switch being flipped, my muscles relaxed. It was a strange sensation, the intense agony sweeping through me, only to have it suddenly gone from mind as the muscles of my body loosened, as the tears dried and cleared my vision up.

With everything that had happened, it would've been stupid to ignore the possibilities of what just happened to me. The only way to unbind Kol from me was to bind me to his life, to make me an Original, but it was all a longshot. We had no idea what might happen, what the outcome might actually be, so to write off the idea that I was bound to him, just because I loved him and knew he had a way of calming me down, was stupid.

I took a few deep breaths and nodded, putting the thought in the back of my mind for a moment. "Okay. I still don't wanna risk it, not until I know."

"Listen, Darcy, right now, I think the best thing for you to do would be rest," Rebekah informed me, and she, too, came over to stand near me. There was a smile on her lips, a warm smile that I still wasn't used to seeing from her, but it was stunning, absolutely beautiful. "We'll all leave you alone, let you process what's happening to your body a bit better. Get some sleep, and you'll feel better in the morning."

Bonnie gave me a soft smile from the bed, a smile that seemed absent of all fear. "I, uh, I made us both daylight rings, so we'll be good to get some fresh air in the morning."

"Thank you." I watched her take a ring and place it on the nightstand beside my bed, and what I saw was nothing that I expected. "Where did that—?"

"Do you honestly think I haven't had a ring ready to be turned into a daylight ring for you since day one?"

My eyes peeled away from the ring for a brief moment, to see the way Kol's face seamlessly became the arrogant but still somehow charming smirk that had become endearing. "I guess I didn't think about it."

"Lucky for you, I did."

"I thought hybrids didn't need daylight rings," Elena spoke up.

"Nik had to wear one before triggering his werewolf curse, and he had to wear it after our mother put the curse on him to keep his werewolf side dormant." Kol glanced at my sister, giving her a soft smile. "Until someone dies by Darcy's hand, she has to wear a ring like the rest of us."

I didn't want to think about what he was saying, but I could feel something just beneath my skin, scratching. I could feel it causing pain, at the very mention of someone dying by my hand, but I didn't want to think about it, didn't want to let my mind wonder what was going on.

 _No_. I wasn't gonna kill anyone. I couldn't . . . I couldn't kill anyone.

I remained silent as I watched everyone leave the room, with only Bonnie and Jeremy lingering past the others. At first, when I saw Bonnie stand up from the bed and head my way, I was scared, wondering what she might possibly be doing remaining behind until she stopped in front of me.

"Can I have some of your blood?"

I tried not to let my face scrunch, but the emotions inside were scattered, and they were definitely heightened—beyond what I had actually prepared for, with the random idea to turn me into an Original bound to Kol to unbind him from me. It had sort of been thrown on me and then happened, so I didn't get much time to understand that things were going to be heightened even beyond what I was ready for.

"Come on, Darcy," she whispered, and though tears filled her eyes, she smiled, a genuine smile that was more beautiful than she would ever know. "I'd rather it be your blood than anyone else's."

It hadn't actually occurred to me until she said that, but I _was_ a new bloodline of vampires, one that wasn't sired to any of the others. Technically, because I was bound to Kol's life, if he died, so did both of our sire lines, but at that point, shit was going down, and all vampires were probably gonna die. That meant something was happening, something big.

"W-Why do you have to turn?" I insisted. "Bonnie, you absolutely never wanted this. You said you'd rather die."

"If being alive means that the spirits can get to your kids, if it means that their mother can somehow draw on my bloodline and come back . . . I'm not gonna take that chance, Darcy. I love you and those babies too much to take this risk."

I couldn't argue with her about that. Esther had used the strength of the mother-daughter Bennett bloodline to come back, and even though Abby was already a vampire, there could still be some way around it. Right now, the last thing we needed was Esther coming back.

Though I heard as Kol snapped Bonnie's neck, per her request that he do it since she had done it for me, I couldn't stop thinking about what was happening around me, everything that everyone had given up.

Why was this fair? Why was this right?

"Why does this keep happening?"

I had waited to ask my question until Jeremy had taken Bonnie out of the room, probably towards the room they had sort of ended up sharing. It was originally meant to be Bonnie's room, but he stayed in there so much that it had kind of become _their_ room, in a cute way.

She was _dead_ , the final person to give their life away for the safety of my kids.

"Don't do this, love," he murmured. "Bonnie made this choice on her own. No one made the suggestion to her. This was her free will, her choice to make. In no way is it your fault. You can't blame yourself for other people's choices."

"It still doesn't make it feel any better." I wondered if I would've continued protesting, if I even _could_ continue protesting, but I didn't really want to, not with everything that was happening all at once.

It actually wasn't that much happening. I was just a newly awakened Original vampire.

"Everything you feel is heightened," Kol reminded me, perfectly mirroring my own thoughts. "You have to adjust. I swear, you'll get there. It was rough for my family because we had no idea what to expect, but I will help you. I won't let you lose yourself."

Every piece of bad was suddenly gone, all of it replaced with the never ending electricity that began surging through every part of my body the second his fingers touched my skin. With the darker parts of me thinking about killing Bonnie, I had somehow missed how different a single touch felt, but I couldn't miss it anymore, not when it was Kol touching me.

"Whoa." That was all I could say, the only thing that could perfectly encompass all the things in my mind that were going berserk.

Watching his lips turn into a smirk was one of the sexiest things my new eyes had seen, and all I could think about was the fire that suddenly ripped through me, that came out as more than a single spark. It was a forest fire, rippling out and spreading through each and every nerve until the ends of every nerve burned to feel him in every possible way.

"I told you," he breathed, and the fire that ripped to my core had my hands physically trembling, with just three breathy words from his perfectly shaped lips.

I couldn't stand not having them against mine, not having him against me, and holy damn, I really didn't expect what happened. Our lips touching had become familiar, enough that we could move together well, but this was a completely different universe. With every part of me feeling more alive than my old body would've even known how, I never wanted to stop. I never wanted to lose his skin against mine in this intimate entanglement of two lips of one soul that had become tightly adjoined, through so many trials throughout such a short few months.

His grip around me was tighter than he had ever been able to hold me, his strength nearly crushing me, but it felt so _good_. The pain was nonexistent, if anything just a spark for the wild and rough sex that we could really get into from time to time.

"Mmm. Guess who isn't breakable anymore."

I had never been moved to the bed faster than I was then, and Kol wasted no time removing the dress from my body. I tried to breathe, but I knew if I did, it might come out as a moan. With all the vampires in the house, moaning just didn't seem like such a good idea.

His lips found my neck, pressing into the dimple of my collar bone, but his hand moved to press against my lips, to keep whatever sounds might come out hidden behind the skin of his fingers.

"Don't make a sound," he purred against my skin, and with his lips continuing a trail down my body, with the warmth of his tongue leaving a wet path of what might as well have been gasoline, all I wanted to do was moan.

I wanted to revel in this feeling, of everyone being beautifully right. Sex _was_ better as a vampire, and I hadn't gotten to the actual sex part of it all, but I didn't have to be there to know.

There was absolutely no way I'd ever get enough.

It actually physically hurt me not to make a sound, so I tried to, to make the softest moan that I could muffle with my own hand. But I couldn't. It was as if my brain had severed the connection that allowed me to speak, to make any kind of noise whatsoever.

I literally couldn't make a sound.


	21. 20: The Truth of It All

"Take me to the dark, and don't you ever let go.  
I like it when you treat me like an animal.  
You can take my heart like a criminal.  
So grab me by the neck, and don't you ever let go.  
Mess me up so good until I'm begging for more.  
You tear me apart like an animal."

 _Animal_ : Conor Maynard

* * *

No matter how long we had been in the home in Phoenix, it didn't quite look the same anymore. I was a vampire, and everything was different now.

Three days had passed since I made the decision to turn, without really thinking twice about what it might mean for the twins. I hadn't been completely out of their lives, but I refused to let myself hold them, not until I was absolutely certain there was nothing I would do to hurt them. I liked to think that I wouldn't, but it wasn't a chance I was willing to take, especially not after everything we had all gone through to make it to this point alive.

Well . . . undead anyways.

Downstairs, on the main floor of the home, everything was pretty much open, with few walls to separate rooms and massive archways as the door between them, but there was a hallway that was sort of hidden, a hall that led to the study of sorts. In the center of the hall was this little nook that overlooked some of the property Klaus had gotten.

I understood why they never thought to make a home in Phoenix. Maybe it was a great place for some, but to me, the endless desert didn't make me feel any better. The dry dirt, with rocks scattered about, and thin scraggly grass scattered out in patches, I could actually see a cactus out in the distance. They weren't strewn everywhere, like I had always imagined when I thought about land in Phoenix, but it was barren, _dry_.

I never thought I'd miss the cold, but Phoenix did that to me, quickly.

Maybe I was being too harsh on Phoenix, though, because the truth of it all was, I wasn't uncomfortable because I was stuck in the middle of a desert somewhere. I was uncomfortable because of something that had happened, something I hadn't really known to prepare for.

As a human, I always knew that my aggression came from the dormant werewolf curse inside of me. It was why I did yoga, to help keep myself calm to ensure that no one died, especially by my hand.

As a vampire, that aggression was heightened. It had become something more, something darker. Even worse than the bloodlust, there was something beneath my skin _itching_ to kill something, someone—anything. Maybe it was the reason I almost killed Bonnie the other night. Maybe it was the reason I was scared to let myself near my kids; I absolutely couldn't handle doing anything to hurt them.

Yet it clawed away at me, reminding me that a part of me was still locked away. I didn't like to think of the werewolf as a part of me, but it _was_. If I ever killed anyone, I could unlock my true potential as a tribrid—an _Original_ vampire-witch-werewolf tribrid.

Did I need to do that, for the sake of my kids? Would it have been better for _me_ to be the one to kill Bonnie?

Maybe it would've. Maybe I should've thought about that.

I hadn't, though, and it was too late to undo what had already been done. Bonnie was a vampire who exhibited the kind of control that we had only ever seen from Caroline, the kind of control that Elijah learned over years of practice. Obviously his excuse was a valid one—he was an Original vampire, after all—but nonetheless, Bonnie was completely in control.

It would've been easy to say that she was in control because we were in a house full of vampires, but they even took her into town, let her be around people, and she was completely fine, didn't feel out of place at all.

My eyes drifted down to the daylight ring on my finger, the one that Kol had gotten and had ready for me since he realized he wanted me around forever. The ring wasn't one he had just bought at a store. It was something that he had collected over the years, one of the many things he wanted for no real reason other than to have and got because he could, because he was a vampire who could get whatever he wanted.

It was an antique, subtle but with a few diamonds accenting the mystifying lapis lazuli in the center. It wasn't just a solid blue, as most had been. The stone was sprinkled with specks of gold, and he called it the perfect ring for me. I loved that he was right. Elena and Caroline hadn't gotten to choose their rings, and if Stefan and Damon _had_ . . . well, anyways, I didn't choose mine, but it had been chosen for me, perfectly.

It was absolutely beautiful, even if it might one day be useless to me.

I wasn't alone long, didn't get lost in the golden swirls within the sea of blue. Kol stepped through the doorway, into the study, and he didn't hesitate to sit down beside me. It was the only room in the house that didn't just radiate with lightly colored walls or open windows. There were actually only two small windows, directly across from the couch I had nestled into.

His lips fell against my hair, and his arm draped around me, laying so that the pads of his fingertips touched along the skin of my shoulder. "There you are."

"Here I am." I let myself melt into his embrace, let myself take in the musk of Kol. The scent of his chocolate mint shampoo and soap was sexy, however soap could be sexy, but beneath his skin, I could smell _him_ , whatever scent every person gave off without even realizing it. It might've been a vampire thing, to be able to smell that scent, but I could, if I focused enough on the way someone smelled.

"How are you feeling?"

My fingers touched against the fabric of his shirt, the soft cotton of the shirt he wore touching the tips in a way I still wasn't used to just yet. "I'm a bit stir crazy, if I'm being honest. We made it. I'm a vampire, and I'm not sired to Klaus. I'm not a hybrid at all—well, I'm not a werewolf. I guess I just wanna live a little bit, but . . . I can't do that. If I do that, I might kill someone, so instead, I sit here, just kinda waiting for something to happen. I mean, we came here to protect the twins, right? And now we're just kinda stuck here, waiting on something to happen."

He moved his hand to move some of the loose curls behind my ear, and the corners of his eyes softened. "Most of my life was spent that way, completely void of purpose and reason. Every day drug on and on, and I was just itching for something more. I thought I needed to kill more, to feel more pleasure, but at the end of the day, none of it mattered."

"Mmm." I grinned up at him, loving the way the light shimmered in the golden specks more brilliantly than the sun itself. "I'm glad to be your something more."

His lips moved down to grab onto mine, completely shifting the position we were in. In one shift, his body was pressing mine back into the couch, dictating me in an all too familiar and delightful way.

He pulled out of the kiss just far enough that he could speak, but his lips still grazed mine with each word. "I've got just the thing we can do to get your mind off it all."

"Ooh." My arms snaked around his neck, pulling him close enough that our lips touched for another few moments. "Since I can't see my kids anyways, what can sex during the day hurt?"

He didn't let me talk anymore. Just as his body could easily dominate mine, even now that I was an Original vampire, his lips were in charge, pressing mine into sweet submission.

His fingers moved to rip the ponytail holder from my hair, leaving the wild mess hanging in disarray just past my shoulders. It was his favorite way to have me, with wild hair and completely naked.

"We should—"

His lips pressed against mine further, silencing me, and I allowed him to move me back against the couch, to press me against the soft cushions. If he had a moment to think that he had won, I would catch a single break in his control, would catch a moment to slip away.

I had to physically rip myself from underneath him to do so, but I got my moment—and disappeared to the other side of the room.

He could catch me, though, and my body fell back into the wall behind me, with his only keeping me pressed there after I had willingly fallen. It was all I could do not to make a sound at this point. Right now, my legs were pressed together, attempting to cross as subtly as possible.

It was just so uncomfortable to be so turned on, and he wasn't making it any better, with the lust burning like the wildest fire, with his perfect body pinning me in place.

"We should go somewhere else," I breathed, just barely getting the words out before his lips were on mine again.

"No," he growled into my mouth, and he ripped his lips from mine, to press them against my jawbone. They continued to fall south, moving against the skin of my neck until he found the dimple of my collar bone. "You stay right here and let me devour every inch of your skin."

 _Shit_.

I did whatever I could to hide this from him, literally whatever I could do, and it had worked, for the few days that I had been a vampire. The last thing he needed to know was the truth of unbinding me from him. Of course it had been implied that it was a possibility, but _I_ didn't mind. So far, it hadn't gotten in the way. If anything, it had helped. He was able to help me calm down sometimes, and when it came to sex, it was kinda hot, in an overpowering way. Eventually, it might lose its allure when I decided I wanted to take advantage of my endless source of magic and new vampire strength, but right now, I was enjoying every single touch as if it were completely new—and in so many ways, they _were_ new touches.

Though I didn't have a choice but to stay there and let him kiss along my skin, I wondered if I would've moved anyways. Kol had power over me, even beyond the sire bond, and with me as turned on as I was, with his lips moving against my skin . . . would I have honestly left?

Probably not, as horrible as it was to say.

His fingers were not so subtly moving to the zipper on the back of my dress, pulling one leg around his waist. "You and those damn red heels."

I didn't have to look at my feet to remember what he was talking about—I _did_ have on red heels, to go with the blush silk dress I wore. It was shorter than I might've worn before and _strapless_. Now, with all the places I had grown, that was borderline dangerous, but it was too damn cute to pass up on.

He was suddenly ripped away from me by the sound of faint shuffling down the hall. Living in a house of vampires, there weren't a lot of extra noises, but unless someone was _trying_ to move quietly, they put off enough sound to be heard.

Kol was over on the couch, crossing one leg over the other and draping his arm across the back of it, as if he had been there the entire time. I tried to go sit beside him, but my body was stuck. I actually physically couldn't leave the place I was standing in.

Shea came in before Kol could think to question why I might be standing still in the same place, and that was an absolute miracle. So far, I had done well to keep it from him, and I wanted to keep it that way. Obviously I didn't necessarily _want_ to be bound to his will for all of eternity, but I could find a way around it, without him unnecessarily freaking out.

Shea's brow pulled up at the sight of me. "Hey, Darcy. What? Too restless to sit still?"

"Extremely." The desire had made it easy to forget the way something clawed at me from beneath my skin, but Shea was bringing attention back to it. I could feel its nails scraping at the nerves underneath, and if Kol hadn't told me to stay in place, I probably would've gone to sit beside him at least, to feel the comfort of his touch.

How long could I really do this? How long could I really fight the dormant werewolf inside?

"Are you feeling okay, though?"

It was a strange question, one that I got pretty much any time I bumped into someone new—even some of the hybrids. I hated not knowing the names of all of the hybrids sired to protect the twins, but I _didn't_ know them. Klaus kept them busy, watching out for things around town as well. Sutton, Ayven, Maisyn, and Oryn were on that detail as well, though they kept an eye on things closer to the house most often.

Still, I felt as if I should know them.

I folded my arms over my chest. "I'm okay as I can be, I guess, considering there's a part of me that wants to murder my children."

"Actually, that's why I came to find you." Her smile grew, into one that was rare to see from Shea. Prisca smiled all the time, and Shea smiled, but not the massive smile she gave me now, that twinkled in the corners of her eyes. "Bonnie's been with the twins all morning, and she hasn't even thought twice about killing them. I think it's time to _try_."

"What if—?"

"Everyone's in the living room, waiting for you," she said. "We can all ensure nothing happens."

Kol stood form the couch without hesitating. "She's right, Darcy."

My eyes tightened, but nothing had to be said. All it took was one look sent his direction, and he understood the question I was asking without actually asking. I was an Original vampire, with magic and a strong bloodlust. Could they really stop me?

"We'll be right behind you," he promised, and he was across the room in a second, with his hands around my face. Shea didn't protest, gave us both a tiny smile and walked out. She was very vocally against seeing how cute Kol could be with me, as it usually made her tear up, and this was no exception. "You can do this, love."

An idea flashed across my mind, at the reminder that he somehow had to give me permission to move without him knowing that was what he was doing. "Promise me that I can do this."

"Of course you can do this," he murmured, and his arms snaked around my waist. "You're Darcy Gilbert, the most innocent and beautiful person I know. You don't want to hurt our children? Then don't. Don't let your urges get the better of you, and love our children the way that you do. It's that simple for you."

I tried not to show him the relief that surged through me, reaching every piece of my body and relaxing the strain in a moment. "Thank you."

"You can do whatever you want," he whispered. "You're stubborn that way."

I let out a breath between my growing smile, but my eyes never left his. "I guess we should go."

His hands fell by his side, and he nodded. "I think it would be best if you drink something first, just to be safe."

"Finn and Sage are out getting blood bags," I reminded him. "Our little army of vampires has pretty effectively drained the house."

"Well, here." He stepped back enough that he had room to bend his arm towards me, to put his wrist near my mouth. "This should work well enough."

The thought had occurred to me that this was possible, when he got some of my blood for the last time as a human, but nothing had been said about it, not until now. Now, he was offering me _his_ blood, to help keep the monster in me at bay.

Though drinking from his wrist might've been the best thing to do, all I could think about was sinking my teeth into his neck, taking it from the best source in the hottest way possible.

I moved his wrist out of the way and grabbed onto him, and I took what I wanted. He was in no way complaining, though the two of us fell back into the wall behind me.

The blood was warm, but it tasted _good_ , better than it ever had. Something about drinking blood from a vampire felt different, but it was as if I couldn't get enough. The thirst inside seemed unquenchable, and that was a new but strange phenomenon. Whenever I drank from blood bags, it was stale, definitely not what I _really_ wanted, but I wasn't so hungry anymore.

I couldn't seem to get enough.

Kol had to rip me off of him, and the only way he was able to do that was to pin me back, to grab my wrists and pin them both above my head.

"Careful, love." His lips curled back, revealing his beautiful smile, and even though his eyes were a forest burning to ash, his smile was gentle. "How do you feel?"

I pressed my lips together and focused, trying to push the monster back inside, and now that I wasn't currently drinking from Kol, it was easy to see with clarity. I could see the actual thirst dying, that I _did_ feel much better.

"Better." My face scrunched. "Why did it feel like I couldn't stop?"

"Drinking from a vampire is different," he said, and he brushed a thumb across my cheek. "The blood is different."

"Right."

He dropped my hands, and his smile quickly became something much darker, something _hotter_. "Come on, love. Let's go see our children. After we put them to bed tonight, I promise you that I will ravage your body in all of the best ways."

"You better."

He was laughing as he took one of my hands, but he didn't let it stop him. He took my hand and began moving forward, and I had never been so grateful to be able to _move_ before.

Something he said had probably freed me, so I did, at least, take comfort in the fact that he still didn't know.

When Shea mentioned that everyone would be there to help, she had exaggerated a bit, but there were definitely a lot of people in the living room. They all stood scattered around the massive living room. Elijah, Rebekah, Elena, the Salvatores, the hybrids sired to the twins, Prisca, Shea, Caroline, Alaric, Jeremy, and Bonnie were all gathered, spread out comfortably but close enough to the twins that they could jump at the first sign of danger.

Elena didn't waste time getting me slowly into it, and it was probably because she didn't think I'd have a problem at all. She had been vocally against me being away from the twins, insisting my maternal instincts that had gotten us this far would kick in, but I was scared of what I was, of the curse beneath my skin.

Kol had told me not to hurt them. He had said the words I needed him to say, so honestly, I didn't know if it was possible _to_ lose control of myself. I didn't want to assume it wasn't, so I took Alastor with caution.

His eyes were changing every day. Most babies would develop their eye color by the time they were six months old, but that didn't mean they would have to be six months. Theia's were already becoming noticeably darker, turning brown, but Alastor's didn't look brown. The more time that went on, the more they looked _blue_. Not the empty blue that was an iris without pigment. There was definite color in there, very similar to the almost royal blue of Rebekah's eyes.

At the sight of me in front of him, he let out a loud squeal, and I completely melted. It had been far too long since I held him, and I couldn't help it. Clutching him to my chest, I tried to hide the tears, but damn it, I could hold my baby.

I even rested my head against his, took in the scent of the blood in his veins, and of course Kol had been right all along. The blood, though warm, smelled different somehow.

Alastor was too wild to lean against me for long, but I was ready for him, with a huge smile. His neck had become strong enough to hold up his head at this point, but I still kept a hand close, as a habit that would die off the more I got used to it.

"Guess what, baby." Hearing me say anything at all had him smiling, and there wasn't anything in the world that could compare to moments like this one, moments where my child was smiling at me like I was the greatest thing inside of his world. "Mommy isn't gonna kill you."

I hadn't realized who had Theia, not until she began laughing from Elijah's arms. At the sight of me looking at her, her smile widened, and I couldn't help myself. I tucked Alastor securely in my arm to stand in front of her, to take her from Elijah's arms.

I turned back to Kol with a smile brighter than I think I actually intended, but I could do it! Before I turned, holding them both at the same time was almost impossible for me, both because I was too clumsy and because they were too heavy, but it didn't feel like I was holding anything.

It was one of the best feelings in the world, to know that I could do this.

Though his eyes were shining, his lips pursed. "Okay, love, I'm very happy that you're not going to murder our children, but—"

"No!" I cut him off, before he could say anything more. "Look, I can hold them both, and it doesn't hurt! You don't understand how amazing that is!"

"Darcy." He was suddenly in front of me, with both hands resting on a shoulder, and his eyes began studying every piece of my face. It was clear he struggled to focus on only me, with both children in my arms, but he somehow managed for the moment. "Be careful. You still don't know how strong you are, and running with them like that could hurt them."

"Right." I took a few deep breaths and carefully gave Alastor to him, to better ensure I handled each child with care and caution. Just because I wasn't going to drink their blood didn't mean I wouldn't accidentally hold them too tightly and break them somehow.

Alastor and Theia had changed so much since the day they were born. Each day, something new changed. They both had teeth starting to come through, though they didn't seem to feel it. Maybe it was their vampire blood, or maybe their bodies were built more resilient because of what they were.

I didn't know, but each day, something changed. They weren't developing the way they were inside of my womb, with the magic used to speed up the process of their development, but they were changing. When I first noticed, I asked Shea and Prisca if it was normal, and they assured me that babies just grew daily.

What did I know about it all? I had never been a mom before, never seen babies around me.

When the twins were first born, they were so noticeably our kids that it was hard to see them for what they were, new lives.

Every day, I began to see more and more of Alastor coming out, more and more of Theia, but in Kol's arms . . . it was impossible to not see the resemblance.

Someone could be a new life and still look like someone else. Elena and I were proof of that—Elena more than me, since she looked _identical_ to Katherine and the Tatia doppelgänger before Katherine.

It was like watching the love of my life hold a miniature version of himself, with beautiful blue eyes instead of the warm golden that I had grown beyond fond of. It just made me more eager to see how much the differed the more Alastor grew.

The view in front of me was almost overwhelming, but Klaus had to come into the room and ruin it all.

"Congratulations on not eating your children." His eyes were smug, worse than the smirk on his lips, but I did my best to ignore the arrogance, to focus on the three loves of my life. The arrogance was short lived, however, because he looked over to Kol. "Nothing has come up yet."

Kol nodded, but his gaze shifted away from his brother, back towards me.

I raised a single eyebrow and adjusted Theia in my arms, pulling me closer to "What is he talking about?"

"Nothing." He gave me a soft smile. "Don't worry about it."

 _Come on!_

I didn't wanna let it go, especially with the way he shifted the moment Klaus said something, but I didn't have a choice. It reminded me of the day in the hotel room, while the Phoenix home was under construction. I told Kol to leave me alone, to leave it alone, and he had to because he was bound to me.

"Okay."

It was the same reason I realized that something was up with him, that something was _wrong_ , and it began working almost immediately in his mind. I could see the gears turning, see the corners of his eyes begin tightening as he focused on me.

Klaus didn't have to think about it. He just began laughing, looking to his little brother with the beautiful blue of his eyes darkened by a more twisted kind of humor. "Kol, why don't you tell Darcy to touch her toes?"

I fought the urge to gawk at them both, instead scoffed and tried to avert my attention from the two, focus on the little angel in my arms. "Why would he do that? That'd be silly." I smiled at Theia. "Tell them. Mommy can't touch her toes. I'm holding you."

"It would, wouldn't it?" Kol's words were soft, hesitant, and I heard shifting. I heard Alastor moving from Kol's arms and into the next closest person, only so Kol could take Theia from mine. He didn't hold onto her long, instead handed her to the closest person to us both. There was clearly something he wanted to do. "Darcy, I'd like you to touch your toes."

I took a single step back, though I didn't really know what I was trying to run from. "Please don't do this."

"Why?" His arms folded over his chest. "Because you're bound to me?"

"No."

His eyebrows rose, but he rubbed his lips together, his eyes feigning belief. "Really? You're not bound to me?"

At this point, it was completely inevitable. It would just take one single statement, one single demand that I tell the truth, and he would have answers. "Nope."

"Then why are you touching your toes?"

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so, I have just finished writing chapter 31 of this story, which is amazing because not even two weeks ago, I was afraid that this story was doomed to either die or have one of the worst endings of any story I've ever written.**

 **Then again, it would have an ending.**

 **Most of my stories never get finished. I come up with new ideas and trail off, leaving stories in the dust, but I worked hard to ensure that this one did. It's been my most successful, and I just couldn't leave you guys hanging like that. I also felt that Kol and Darcy deserved their proper justice.**

 **Part 3 will be interesting, but it _will_ happen, and I will see it all the way through, just like this one. :)**

 **Read, review, and enjoy! :)**


	22. 21: Another Bond

"Where you wanna go,  
I'd love to take you there.  
Wish that I could make the road easy.  
I wish that life was fair.  
Don't wanna see you cry,  
Even when it rains,  
And I hope you don't forget this.  
You were born for better things.

But if you ever fall down straight to the bottom,  
And you can't get back where you started.  
With no strength to stand,  
Gonna reach for your hand.  
When the going gets rough,  
Right when it's hurting, I will be there  
To help any burden.  
Any place, any time,  
You gotta know for you, I'll fight."

 _I'll Fight_ : Daughtry

* * *

"Okay, _listen_."

Kol locked his fingers in the hair along his hairline, and his eyes were scattered, searching around the room for someone that wasn't me—Bonnie perhaps?—but they didn't remain wherever long, as his gaze was too frantic.

"No." The word came out barely a whisper. "This is not how it was supposed to happen."

I held my hands up and began trying to breathe. "Look, just don't freak out, okay? You didn't notice for, like, three days."

His eyes tightened. "And you did, yet you didn't tell me?"

"No because I knew you'd freak out." I rushed to grab onto him, to try and make him look at me. "I would also like to remind you that you didn't tell me.

I watched his face twist into a grimace, mixed with the anger burning in his eyes. "It's _different_. This is something to freak out about, Darcy."

My lips sank into my bottom lip, and I let my eyes dart somewhere else, towards the twins. I hadn't originally noticed who Kol had given Alastor to, but he was in Prisca's arms now, and Theia was still in Klaus'.

I took Theia from him and headed towards Shea, who was already heading my way—as if she could read what I needed. "Can you take them somewhere that's not here? I don't wanna scare them, and I don't know how this is gonna go down."

They weren't going to argue, not with what they had to know was coming. Though they took them, they didn't disappear from sight the way that I had moved with them earlier. They stepped carefully, remembering their vampire strengths and holding them accordingly.

"Darcy, we love you," Caroline spoke up, before Shea and Prisca had a chance to get out of the room. "You know that we do, but can you not see that this is exactly what we worked so hard to prevent the entire time? We kept your werewolf gene a secret from Klaus to ensure he never had power over you. I get that this isn't your fault, but you could see a little less glad about it."

I took in what she was saying, but I couldn't tear my eyes from Kol, whose anger seemed to only grow the longer we stood here. "Look, don't freak out, okay?"

He had to take a deep breath to stifle back some of the rage, but if there was one thing I had learned, it was that Kol absolutely did _not_ wanna be mad at me. He went through great lengths to never let it show if he was. "How long have you known?"

"Since the night I was turned."

His mind began reeling, going back to the night I was turned, and I watched the thoughts clouding through his mind, remembering each moment precisely, until he got to the moment I knew—the moment he told me to be quiet. "When I . . . ."

"Yes." I pressed my lips together. "I tried, and I couldn't. I knew then that I ended up bound to you."

"No." The more the thought was in his mind, the more I could see the muscles in his jaws tightening. The veins in his throat pulsed, bringing him deeper into his descent into madness.

I rolled my eyes. "I mean, this is kinda payback for what you did. You bound yourself to me. Why is it any different?"

"Because you're not a monster, Darcy!" he exclaimed. "You're a good person!"

"So are you."

To hear Klaus start laughing, rather vibrantly, from beside Kol did two things. It reminded me that we weren't alone at the time, and it pissed me off.

Klaus put his hand on Kol's shoulder, who, in his rage, just shoved it back off. It only made his laughter grow louder, the depths of his eyes shining with that dark humor, but he held his hands up in defense. "I guess love really is blind, isn't it, Darcy?"

I shot the best glare I could Klaus's way, but my focus returned to Kol, to force him to look at me any way that I knew how. "How many people have you killed since you woke up?"

With one look into his eyes, I could see the anger dying away, being replaced by something he had spent too many days feeling. His entire life had been empty of purpose, empty of anything of meaning, and I had come into his life and changed that. He felt good for the first time in over a thousand years, and then I had just disappeared without reason.

It was all in the past, but that pain . . . it was a bit different, nowhere near extreme, but I didn't want him to feel _any_ pain, especially over this.

"That's not me, Darcy. It's you." He moved to stand in front of me, to put a single hand along my cheek. "The difference is, this was _my choice_. I knew what I was doing and purposely bound myself to you. This wasn't your choice."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Yes it was."

"No."

"I knew the risks, Kol, and I did it anyways because I didn't care." I put my hand on his and let the corners of my mouth pull up. "Because I trust you."

Watching him soften beneath my fingers, with the words that he probably didn't hear much throughout his life—if ever—was bittersweet, but I was happy that he could feel this kind of thing now. Any time I thought about his empty life before, it hurt me, but then I remembered that he didn't have to live that way anymore.

He had his entire eternity ahead to forget all about the pain, to remember only the good.

"Wait just a moment." It was only a matter of time before someone else came into the conversation, with the way things had turned, and it was only barely surprising that Rebekah had been the one to speak up. "What did you two do? How did she make the choice to bind herself to you? Was it some sort of reversal spell?"

Maybe too much had been said, but I wasn't gonna be the one to answer her. Lying was absolutely not my forte, and in the moment, I had no idea what we might say to explain it. All I knew was that Kol was upset because I ended up bound to him, instead of the other way around.

Bonnie stepped up before either of us had to find an answer, and she cleared her throat. "I don't think this is what you think it is."

Kol was actually able to tear himself away from me when he heard Bonnie speak up, one of the only other people who knew the truth about all of this. "What do you mean?"

"When we did the spell on you, the first thing you noticed was that you could sense her." She turned to me now, giving me a gentle smile. "Darcy, can you sense him, in a way that you can't explain?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She pursed her lips. "Do you just _know_ where he is at all times, whether he's in the same room or not?"

"Well no."

"See?" She spun back to face Kol, to try and give him some sort of assurance about all of this—when his brother wouldn't. "It's different. I think it's something else."

Kol, though he liked the idea of it being something else, anything else, couldn't seem to figure out what she was referring to. "What else could it be?"

"When Klaus sires hybrids, they come back with a sire bond," she reminded him, reminded all of us.

I shifted my weight to the other side, my eyes focusing in on Bonnie's potentially false hope. "Because they're grateful that he saved them from their curse. I still haven't triggered mine."

"No, but you _did_ want an eternity," she said, and she shrugged effortlessly. "Kol gave that to you."

"Actually, it may be for another reason." Damon speaking up and stepping forward was just more reminder that everyone was still in here—aside from Prisca and Shea, and the hybrids sired to the twins—but it helped me focus on what had to be done. This conversation was veering towards a place it didn't need to go, and I needed to focus on making sure I didn't let the truth of it all slip. "I turned this girl in New Orleans who was crazy about me. Since my blood turned her, she awoke with a sire bond simply because she was in love with me."

Kol seemed a bit skeptical, and most of it may have been because of _how_ I was turned. Had I been turned from his bloodline, the sire bond would've been easy to explain, but I hadn't.

His blood _had_ been used to create me, though, so maybe that was it.

"That doesn't always happen," Kol said, but his shoulders were pulling back, his brow scrunching while the depths of his mind raced with a million different thoughts about it all.

Elijah rubbed his hand across his mouth. "Sire bonds like this are rare but not unheard of."

"I really think that's all this is," Bonnie insisted, grabbing Kol's attention all over again. She stared at him intently, with his eyes staring back the same way. "I think Darcy is _sired_ to you, not bound."

"If this is just the sire bond," he murmured, but his eyes had already found their way back to me. "We can find a way to break the sire bond. It's a long shot, but hybrids can do it. We can find a way to break it for you as well."

"That's good," I said, and one of his eyebrows pulled up. "Come on, Kol. I didn't _want_ to be bound, but it was something that happened, something I was gonna deal with. Truth is, we both need free will, to raise our kids. Right? That makes sense?"

"Yes, love," he said, and he gave me the best smile he could in the moment. "It makes sense."

"So how do you plan to do it?"

"I don't know," he said, but he was able to smile wider now. "But we can find out. There are answers we can find to this problem." I didn't mean to laugh as he talked, but the sound came out anyways, and I wasn't really sure why—though I _did_ find the situation a bit ironic, all things considered. When he found me in the library looking for answers just the other day, he said that there were more important things to do, yet somehow, I imagined resources would be used to scour the world, to find out how to break the bond.

He had bound himself to me, without a way of knowing how to break that bond, and I had bound myself to him, hoping the two bindings would cancel one another out. They did, but there was still a new kind of bond that decided to form, the sire bond that I had avidly tried to avoid.

At least it was to Kol and not Klaus. At least it was to a man who wouldn't hurt me with his power over me.

"I don't see any humor in this situation," he informed me.

"Well, because you need to lighten up." I winked a bit and let my teeth sink into my bottom lip. "I happen to be laughing at the irony. Not even a week ago, you told me that there were more important things than breaking the bond I had over you."

"Because you were chasing after nothing, looking through everything we had already searched through," he said, but despite his irritation with my humor, his eyes lit up brighter than they had since this came to light. "There is plenty we can discover about the sire bond."

"I broke the sire bond I had over Charlotte," Damon spoke up again, which should've been the first thing we thought to do, ask the man who had someone sired to him. "A witch in New Orleans told me how to do it."

Kol turned away from me, his gaze finding Damon in no time at all. "How?"

Damon let out a loud sigh, one that wasn't really exaggerated but almost seemed like it. With the darkness that clouded over his eyes, with the walls he tried to build around himself to hide the good that was really inside erecting tall around the depths of his good heart, I knew his answer wasn't gonna be pleasant. "You have to kill twelve people."

I held both hands up. "Uh, absolutely not."

Kol rubbed his hand across his face, though his bottom lip disappeared between his teeth. "Any specific way you have to—?"

"You are absolutely not killing twelve people for something that doesn't even bother me!" I exclaimed.

"Fine." Though he huffed—he could be a bit dramatic when he didn't get what he wanted—he turned to Elijah again. "Do you have any thoughts?"

"I have heard of the sire bond throughout the years, but from what I've gathered, it's formed through emotional connections, not through magic," he said, but even his eyes kept roaming to Damon, who had spoken about killing _twelve people_ in order to break it. "The fact that there is a spell that can be done to break the connection is surprising."

Bonnie was gawking at Damon, her mouth hanging open with slight horror, but did she really think that was the worst thing Damon had probably done? There were a couple of decades where he had his humanity off, consecutively. It wasn't a decade here and a decade there—he had no humanity for over twenty years.

"That doesn't sound like any kind of spell I've heard of," she finally said, though she couldn't tear her rounded eyes from him.

Kol sighed. "It sounds vaguely familiar to me, though not something that breaks a sire bond. It's something much worse."

Damon's smile pressed, his eyes tightening, and as he folded his arms over his chest, all he could do was stare at Kol, think about what he had just said. "She lied to me, didn't she?"

Kol slowly shook his head, though he wasn't looking at Damon as if he was a spawn of everything evil in the world—I had seen that a couple times here and there, and I was honestly scared to ask _why_.

"Probably."

Damon's teeth snapped together. "Damn it. That means she's still there."

I very loudly cleared my throat, an attempt to pull the attention back to me for the moment. "Okay, so now that we've officially cleared murdering people off the list of things we're gonna try, what are your thoughts Elijah? You sounded like you had an idea."

He smiled at me, though his eyes were distant. "The sire bond is created through an emotional connection, your love for Kol. To break it, you have to break that connection."

"What are you saying?" I asked, but my mind was trying to come up with the answer on its own, to try and figure out what Elijah might possibly mean. How exactly did someone go about breaking their connection to someone, their _love_ for someone?

"You have to turn off your humanity."

There it was, the very thing I never wanted to hear or even think about. Of course I knew that vampires had a humanity switch that helped them cope with their intense emotions, with all the guilt of the things that they did. It was something I had seen Stefan do firsthand, something I had heard stories about Damon doing through one of our many lonely nights of drinking away our sorrows. His were, obviously, much worse than mine, but it was how we bonded, connected—shared sorrows and bourbon.

What would I be without humanity? What could I do? There was something beneath my skin crawling to get out, trying to eat away at me until I caved and just killed someone, and without humanity, who was to say I could fight it?

I _couldn't_ because without humanity, all I could care about was myself. I could only care about making _my_ suffering go away, not about the suffering I planned to inflict on someone else.

"That's a great idea," Kol said, and suddenly, his eyes were like tiny chocolate suns, so vibrant when they found mine that I honestly didn't want to take that away. "Darcy, I want—"

I rushed to him, to put both hands over his mouth, and I shook my head. "No. I can't do that."

As my hands fell down, I could see the way his smile had twisted, into something that resembled a grimace. Paired with his tightening eyes, with his calculating stare, I knew he was confused. "Why not?"

"I don't know what I would be like without humanity," I tried to say, but I could hear my own lie failing, showing in the cracks of my words. "Would I care about you? Would I care about our kids?"

"Without a reason to flip your humanity switch, you'll have no reason to keep it flipped," Klaus assured me, with all semblance of humor from before gone. For once, it was good to see a relatively empty stare sent my way, with only the hint of light that I had seen deep within him somewhere. "It may be an instant switch right back on."

I turned back away from the two closest to me, back towards the windowed doors behind me that overlooked yet some more of the massive property. Staring through these doors, I could see quite a few cacti and more sand and rocks than I ever wanted to see again.

If I never had to come back to Phoenix, I would be okay with that. I could appreciate it for what it was, but it wasn't a place I wanted to be again.

"Darcy, what's going through your head?"

I closed my eyes and tried to take a deep breath. "Please just don't. I don't . . . I don't wanna talk about it right now."

I felt him behind me before his hand even touched the skin of my arm, felt him moving to comfort me in the way that only he could, effortlessly. "Darcy, I need to know what's going on. I want to do this, to flip off your humanity, but I need to know what makes you so scared to have it flipped."

"I don't know if the part of me that wants to kill someone will let me turn it back on, not until I do."

Silence surrounded me in the loudest way, worse than screams and a million questions. Everyone knew what it was like to be a vampire, to be a freshly turned vampire, and a majority knew what it was like to be a new Original vampire.

Only one might understand the very thing I was going through, and without knowing that he was a dormant werewolf, he had no way of knowing what it was. He probably just assumed it was the monster in him for all of those years, even after killing someone and opening the door to his true self.

"I'm a werewolf, Kol," I said, but I turned back to face him in an instant. I tried to fight the urge to look at Klaus, but I couldn't help it. He might understand, and that's exactly what I saw in his eyes—understanding. "There's a curse lying dormant inside of me, literally crawling beneath my skin. All I can think about any time I'm alone or alone with my thoughts is how I'm supposed to kill someone. Someone is supposed to die so I can trigger my curse. It's what made Tyler so aggressive, what made his _dad_ so aggressive. Deep down, all I can think about is killing someone and feeling true relief for the first time in my life. If you turn off my humanity . . . I don't think I'll be able to turn it back on until the curse is broken."

"So you mean all this time—"

"The curse has made me aggressive most of my life, which was why I did yoga, but it hasn't bothered me most of my life," I insisted. "Just when I became a vampire, when everything became heightened. When I was human, when I wasn't as aware of the things going on in my body as I am now, I didn't really notice it much, except when I was really drunk, but that's beside the point. As a vampire, it's tearing me apart, and I hate it. I'm scared of it. If I turn off my humanity, I don't think I can turn it back on until that piece of me is unlocked."

Rebekah cleared her throat, speaking up again with her brow perfectly furrowed. "I think we're all missing a very obvious answer to this solution. Kol can tell her to flip her humanity switch, and then he can compel her to turn it back on. If we can compel it to be flipped off, why couldn't we compel it to be flipped on?"

I noticed Kol's eyes tightening, noticed the way he struggled to just take a normal breath. "We don't know that it would work that way."

"Try it on me," Elena suggested, stepping up and into the conversation for the absolute first time. "I have no reason to remain without humanity, no curse inside of me wanting me to be a werewolf, so if it doesn't work, it should be easy to turn it back on otherwise."

Rebekah didn't hesitate to use Elena as bait. They weren't sworn enemies like they had once been, but that didn't mean they were suddenly best friends. Their relationship hadn't blossomed the same way that mine and Rebekah's had, and I wondered if time would change that.

Still, right now, she didn't care a thing about using Elena as bait for this little experiment. "I want you to turn off your humanity."

I had been in the gym when Klaus compelled Stefan to turn off his humanity. I watched his face shift almost completely, all traces and semblance of something good inside gone. It was as if the humanity was a mask that had been removed, and his face just fell _empty_.

It was horrifying, but it wasn't as terrifying as seeing it on Elena's face, seeing her eyes deaden as the muscles of her face that worked so hard to show good and light simply relaxed, losing all tension throughout her body.

Rebekah's grip on her shoulders tightened, only enough that Elena might not try and get away. "Now I want you to turn your humanity back on."

Just as quickly as the humanity had left Elena, it swarmed back in, the muscles of her face perking back up with the light in her eyes. There was a smile that grew across her lips, that grew across the beautiful and very human face of Elena Gilbert.

"See?" Rebekah turned towards Kol with an arrogant gleam in her eyes, with a smirk on her lips. "It works."

Kol took a deep but slow breath, doing very well to hide the fact that there was anything going on in his mind except the things that had been said out-loud. "It won't work on Darcy."

Her face pinched. "Why not?"

"She's a witch, remember?" Kol shrugged. "We've never met any other witch who retained that ability as a vampire. Any other witch can be compelled, but she's still a witch. She didn't lose her connection to magic."

"And other hybrids are werewolves, yet we can still compel them," Elijah pointed out.

"There's no harm in trying it, or better yet." Klaus put himself between Kol and me in an instant, his hands on my shoulders while his eyes stared deep into mine. "I want you to kill someone, unlock that torturous curse inside of you."

Kol grabbed his brother's shoulder and ripped him away from me as quickly as he could. Even knowing that it didn't work, he wasn't amused with what Klaus even thought was remotely a good idea to try for my compulsion.

"Bite me," I snapped, the moment he settled back away from me.

Klaus began to grin, but it fell from existence when he realized what I was doing—refusing to do what he compelled me to do.

Rebekah scoffed, a line forming between her brows. "That doesn't make any sense."

Kol sighed. "Maybe because she's both?"

"Werewolves who haven't triggered their curse can be compelled," Damon said. "We compelled Tyler before he triggered his curse at least once, if not more."

Klaus slowly began to nod, and I watched his face tighten, watched the muscles of his jaw begin to clench with a deep concentration. "What are we missing?"

I had been so focused on Klaus that I didn't even think to look at the two other people who knew what was happening. Jeremy swore to take it to the grave, and Bonnie assured Kol that she wouldn't do anything to give away this secret.

"You." Rebekah's voice ripped me from Klaus, to the person she was addressing and reaching out to grab by the shoulder. "You look like you have answers. Why can't Darcy be compelled?"

Kol couldn't stop the shaky breath that echoed from within, turning to face his sister completely as she compelled Bonnie. "Bex, no."

Tears began to form in Bonnie's eyes, and she swallowed, visibly enough that everyone in the room probably noticed. "Darcy can't be compelled because she's not just a vampire-witch hybrid."

Visible relief resounded throughout Kol's body, and I felt it in my muscles as well, which had tensed up before I was even aware. I watched his shoulders roll back, watched him almost smile.

Bonnie had answered the question.

Rebekah didn't seem too pleased with her answer. "We know she's a vampire-witch hybrid, and we also know she's a dormant werewolf. What does my brother not want us to know?"

"Darcy didn't turn with Kol's blood," Bonnie blurted, probably the last thing she could think of to avert from the truth.

"I like you, Bonnie Bennett." Kol's statement brought attention to the massive grin that had grown across his lips, but it was gone quickly, as he cleared his throat and prepared to face whatever was to come. "If you want answers, Rebekah, you could just ask."

Her eyes tightened in his direction. "Well, since you didn't give them before and you're avoiding them now, and Bonnie is finding very clever ways to avoid the truth, sometimes you have to force your hand."

"If Darcy didn't turn with Kol's blood, whose blood _did_ she turn with?" Elena asked, but her eyes were on me, even if the question was directed at anyone who would answer.

Damon was staring at me carefully as well, trying to read my mind—as if he could. "And why is she sired if she didn't turn from his blood?"

There was no lie for that one. How could we explain that? Bonnie had confessed that Kol's blood hadn't made me into a vampire, so what else could have besides a spell?

Nothing because I was sired to Kol somehow. I wouldn't have been sired had his blood not been used to turn me in some way.

Kol was already looking at me when my eyes tore to him, to see his reaction to it all. He had explained why his siblings didn't need to know, why it was essential that they didn't find out. They would be angry, upset—betrayed for whatever reason. Call it family pride, but the Mikaelsons were the original family of vampires. To make an entirely new bloodline, outside of the family . . . they might find it betrayal.

Every part of him was stiffened, ready to bolt. He had the daggers. He had the white oak stake, yet he was afraid of their reaction, afraid that all the progress that had been made towards building a real family might crumple.

I didn't think that was possible. He underestimated the power our twins had over his siblings. They were all smitten.

I gave him the best kind of reassuring smile that I knew how, to try and remind him that no matter what happened, he had me. At one point, that had been enough, and I understood completely wanting to fix his family that clearly wasn't beyond repair, as they had once thought. The way that they had all pulled together, even Finn, was proof that they could be a real family.

"What can happen?"

Though he scoffed, his hand came to press against my face, for both of us. "Lots."

I curled into his touch. "Can we really avoid it at this point?"

"What is going on?" Klaus demanded. "I underestimated you before, Darcy Gilbert, but you cannot keep whatever secret you're hiding forever. I think it's in everyone's best interests to get it all out now."

I quirked my lips to the side, refusing to let my gaze wander from Kol. "He's right."

Kol took one final look at me, took one long and final deep breath, and then he turned, towards the three siblings on the other side of the room, taking a single glance towards the one closest to him. "Darcy didn't turn from my blood, but my blood was used to turn her."

Rebekah's eyes narrowed. "Don't speak in riddles, Kol. Just tell us what happened."

"My blood was used to power the spell that made her into an Original vampire."

* * *

 **A/N: Since I didn't post yesterday, only because I was busy playing one of my favorite games of all time and didn't do much else yesterday, I am going to post two chapters today. One now, and one later on in the day.**

 **There were a lot of ways that I thought about doing all of this, but getting all of the secrets out was the best I could find that seamlessly led to the rest of the story. The parts I'm writing now are actually the chapters that sort of set up part 3 (chapter 32 through 38, though I'm only on 32) so there is that fun to come.**

 **Let me know what you guys think. :) I'm glad you are enjoying the story thus far, and I hope you continue to do so. There might be some surprises in later chapters, but I'm doing the best I can to stick to the lore of the story and whatnot. I might be tripping up every now and then, but I am trying. Promise.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	23. 22: Like a Light Switch

"If the sun don't shine on me today,  
And if the subways flood and bridges break,  
Will you lay yourself down and dig your grave,  
Or will you rail against your dying day?"

 _Sleep On the Floor_ : The Lumineers

* * *

"Oh my God." Elena's voice was the first to sound, the first to catch my attention, and when my gaze snapped to find her, there were tears in her eyes, tears that were made good by the smile on her lips. It was only directed at Kol for a few lost moments before she stepped over to throw her arms around Bonnie. "I don't know what you did to help, but thank you. I've been so scared for Darcy."

Bonnie hugged Elena, though she shook her head. "I came up with the idea, to make her an Original bound to him so it might cancel out the way he was bound to her, but he went with it because she would be safe. It was pretty much just him."

"You made her an Original vampire?" Elijah's eyes were on his brother, his lips parted as the confusion took over. He was trying to understand, trying to be careful with what he said, but he didn't know what to say right now.

Kol let out a breath. "Technically, she's an Original vampire-witch-werewolf tribrid—or she has the potential to be."

Rebekah's eyes were much darker, however. "Cute."

"Why would you do something like that?" Klaus all but growled at his brother, and his rage was much brighter than Rebekah's, resonating through his locked jaw and almost barred teeth. "You are a love struck fool."

"Yeah, well, at least I'm happy." Kol wore a smile when he looked to his brother, one that showed he was completely unaffected by what he had just said. "At least I don't have to worry about the love of my life or the mother of my children dying because of whatever enemies I've made! At least I can go to sleep at night knowing that she's safe!"

"You made an Original outside of our family?" Rebekah asked, bringing up the point that Kol was most afraid of.

Elijah, however, had completely softened, all semblance of confusion gone the more that it became explained. "No. She is family."

Her anger, her hurt, was gone, just like that. Hearing Elijah say that, remind her that I was the mother of the twins, who she called the light in their lives, helped her get over her momentary rage, the moment of pride that came over her.

"You know what?" she asked, and she let out a soft breath. "Kol, you are absolutely mad, but you're right. You did the best thing you could have for your children. You protected their mother from everything."

"I didn't do this because I was a love struck fool, Nik." Kol hadn't even turned from his brother, as he was the one who was the most enraged by what he had done. "I did this because I want my children to grow up with their mother, without our problems taking all of that away from them."

Klaus didn't say anything, but his glare never left Kol. For once, Kol wasn't even remotely bothered by it. He didn't let his brother's rage bring him down from this new high—only Klaus was pissed about what he had done. Finn might be, but Kol was never really worried about him disagreeing with the choice. If Finn understood anything, more than any of the others, it was the importance of love. It had changed his life, made him less miserable about what he was.

That's what I had done for Kol, too, and what he had done for me.

Though I enjoyed the absence of anger, I didn't let it take away from the things that we were discussing. I knew we'd talk about them now or later, and I didn't wanna talk about them later. If anything, I wanted this to be over so we could focus back on what was most important—protecting the twins.

"That's why it's kind of a problem," I said, and I began chewing on my bottom lip. "I can't be compelled to turn my humanity back on. Once it's turned off, there's no way to force it back on."

Damon took a deep breath, and the way his eyes tightened at the corners, the way his throat tightened, I knew the words he was about to say were words that he didn't wanna say. "Vampires can be forced back into humanity. We had to do it with Stefan a few times."

 _Oh_.

I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what he was talking about. I had seen what happened when the ghosts were in town, when Lexi was trying to undo everything that Klaus had done to Stefan by forcing his humanity back on. He didn't wanna feel the pain of what he had done, which was how he ended up so crazed on revenge that he hurt everyone else along the way.

Torture, inflicting enough pain that the piece of him that was still inside, locked away with the humanity switch flipped, could ignite fear. Fear was an emotion that could get through the cover, through the wall that flipping the humanity switch put up around a vampire's heart and mind.

Any emotion could, as long as the vampire felt it strongly enough that it could break through.

"You think we can torture her humanity back into her?" Rebekah asked, letting out a scoff.

Kol looked back to Damon with almost feral eyes. "We will absolutely not do that."

"Pain aside, Kol," I said, and I folded my arms over my chest. "Will it work?"

He shook his head. "No because you're too strong. I don't know if any of us have the power to torture you, not when you can just look at us and set us on fire. You said it yourself, Darcy. Your magic has never been stronger, more in control."

He was right about that. Maybe it was because I was a siphon, because I had to access magic that was from a source outside of nature. With more power to pull from within myself than I had ever had, the power of an Original vampire, the magic was stronger. Despite everything else inside of me being so out of control, the magic _wasn't_.

"Then what can we do?" I asked. "What will work? Believe me, Kol. I love you, and I absolutely trust you, but neither one of us need to live our lives this way."

He snorted. "Trust me, love. I know. We're going to turn off your humanity. We just have to figure out how to turn it back on."

"Show her the twins," Caroline suggested. "We'll have you hold them, or have you and Elena holding them. We can show you your kids, Darcy. If that's not enough to turn your humanity back on, I don't know what will be."

I tried to keep my gaze on Kol, but I had to look at Caroline, to see the optimism and brightness in her eyes. It was something endearing, her ability to never give up even when no answers seemed present, but right now . . . it was risky, risks I absolutely couldn't afford to take right now. "I don't think that will work."

She sighed. "It has to work."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Our humanity switch doesn't work the same way as it does for most vampires," Elijah spoke up, without any traces of hurt or anger when referring to _our_ humanity switch. "Our emotions are so strong and heightened that it can't stay off for more than a couple days—a week at most."

I let out a breath. "And how many people can I kill in the process of a week?"

"None," Rebekah assured me. "We can contain you."

I shook my head slowly, trying to fight the tears that began forming in my eyes. I didn't want to cry, especially since this didn't matter too much to me, but I knew Kol wasn't gonna stop. He wouldn't stop until I was no longer sired to him, whatever that took.

"No you can't."

"She's right. There's nothing we could do to stop her." Kol turned towards me fully, placing both of his hands on my shoulders, and his eyes stared straight into mine. "Darcy, I want you to turn off your humanity."

Elena stepped forward, her eyes growing frantic. "No, wait! What the hell are you doing?"

Something strange began to happen inside of me, something that I couldn't really explain—but I didn't care to find out. It didn't benefit me at all to understand what was going on inside of my body.

In that moment, with Kol staring down at me, with everyone in the room watching me, all I could think about was the pain beneath my skin. There was a piece of me scratching at the nerves, scraping away any chance I had at feeling good. They said that newly turned vampires had trouble feeling comfortable in their own skin, but this was more than all of that. There was a piece of me locked away, itching to come out and feel the heightened experience that the rest of me was—to feel the freedom that the rest of my body felt constantly.

I was an Original hybrid, a vampire-witch hybrid, but damn it, it was time to make myself a tribrid.

Someone had to die, and that was fine. I could live with that. One life to make mine better, what did I care?

I didn't. I didn't care about anything.

* * *

 **A/N: I tried very hard to write the humanity switch flipping off seamlessly, and I hope that I did a good job. I wouldn't know what it's like to just suddenly not feel anything, so I had to just sort of guess.**

 **Still, I hope it showed as it was flipping off, as she was losing all of her emotions.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	24. 23: Consequences of Our Actions

"I can't handle these pressures.  
All I can say is this stress hurts.  
Things are supposed to get better.  
I just need to put myself first.  
I'm always trying my hardest.  
Not to pick myself apart.

This energy's killing my vibes now.  
Sometimes I just wanna drown out  
All of the thoughts in my mind.  
Too much going on at the same time.  
I wish it would stop . . .  
. . . That's just reality. Yeah, don't lie to me.  
Yeah, I'm fucked up, but I don't wanna be . . .  
. . . There's rules I'll never follow,  
Pretend there's no tomorrow.  
I wish there was no tomorrow,  
But I'm empty inside."

 _Empty_ : Olivia O'Brien

* * *

"Oh, Elena, you have no idea how good it feels to not give a shit how much prettier you are than me."

Elena's eyes rounded, as if she was so surprised that I felt this way. I did, and it probably would've bothered me if I actually cared enough to be bothered by it, but what did it matter? I wasn't out looking for anyone to love me.

There was only one thing I actually cared about in that moment, and no one in the house could help me.

Prisca and Shea came into the room, maybe after overhearing all the drama that went on around me—overhearing Kol's decision to set me free. They weren't alone, instead holding the two children that I had gone through hell to bring into the world.

I didn't blame them for that. They didn't choose to be born, and while I _could_ kill one of them to feel relief, I didn't really wanna do that. I wasn't stupid. This deadened feeling was coming from my humanity switch being flipped, and if what Elijah said was true, I couldn't feel this way forever.

To be honest, I didn't really want to, but I wanted to feel it long enough to get what needed to be done, done. With feelings getting in the way, I couldn't realize that I needed to activate the werewolf curse. There was no way to think straight with the curse clawing at me. I had to be at the top of my game for whatever might come down the road—and that absolutely meant that I needed to be a tribrid.

It didn't need to be my potential. It needed to be who I was.

I turned back to Kol, ignoring the twins in Prisca and Shea's arms, and I put my hands on Kol's shoulders, giving him the best smile I knew how—or the sexiest. I knew that he liked watching me bite down on my lip, and I could have a lot of fun with this.

But he was useless to me right now, other than the pleasure of it all. Kol loved me, and the last thing he would do is help me kill someone, no matter how much I begged and pleaded.

Then again, there was one thing he was weak to . . . .

"Mmm. I think I could have fun with you."

His eyebrows pulled up, but I refused to see the way his eyes stared back at me. The golden chocolate of his eyes was too warm and beautiful, and I didn't wanna feel that warmth right now, not if it had the power to get through me.

Someone had to die, someone that wasn't anyone here. I cared about all of these people, at least when this was all said and done with.

"I assure you, love, we can get right to that," he said, but he took my hands from his shoulders, letting them fall back by my side. "As soon as Darcy is back."

I snorted. "Yeah, not happening. See, I tried to tell you, and I guess you kinda just hoped that I would magically be fixed. I refuse to feel anything until someone has died."

"Come on, your kids!" Caroline exclaimed. "Don't they just make you wanna feel things?"

I tore myself away from Kol, as he had too much power over me with a simple stare. There were things somewhere deep down, locked away and stirring, and I wasn't stupid. I knew what that meant.

I stared at Caroline. "No, not right now. I've felt things far too strongly since the day I found out I was pregnant, and I don't wanna feel anything right now."

"Then let's go kill someone."

Hearing Kol speak up had me spinning back around, without losing my balance despite the stilettos on my feet, and my eyebrows rose. "Sorry, sweetheart. I know that you love me, and you won't let me kill anyone."

"No," he agreed. "But I can kill anyone you come across to ensure you never do, if that's what it takes."

"That's just a waste of life, don't ya think?" I saw something spark across his eyes, and I just shrugged. "I may not give a shit about anything right now, but that just seems excessive."

* * *

Kol hated himself already.

He watched Klaus snap Darcy's neck, watched her fall limp on the floor. With Darcy distracted by Caroline and the twins, she hadn't seen Kol signal to Klaus, didn't know that his statement that even the humanity-less Darcy could see right through hadn't been so she might actually believe he would help her kill someone. It was so her guard would be down, so Klaus could come up and break her neck.

He was just grateful that Shea and Prisca took the hint as soon as her back was turned to them, that they got the twins out of the room. They absolutely didn't need to see their mother get hurt that way.

Kol wondered if his brother took too much pleasure in that. He had been quite angry since the truth had come out, and it was still burning in his eyes when he looked to his brother.

Elena was the most vocally upset at the moment, as it couldn't have been easy for her to see her sister fall dead that way. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Relax, Elena." Though Klaus smiled, his eyes were tightened at the corners, with something much darker than Kol wanted to think about in the moment. "I have plenty of experience keeping Originals who make stupid choices down."

"Can her emotions have time to come back on if she's dead for a week?" Damon asked. "If this was your brilliant plan."

"He makes a fair point," Rebekah said, each word coming out with harsh undertones. "This won't work."

"So what do we do?" Bonnie asked, and though everyone else was glaring at Kol, speaking to him as if he had just royally screwed up, he was the only person she was looking at for answers. She had seen him do so much to protect her, to give her the life she wanted and more, and she refused to believe he would just selfishly do this without some idea. "Let her kill someone?"

"No." Kol had to swallow, had to stare Bonnie right in the eye and face what he had actually just done, without much thought into it at all. "She will never forgive herself if she does that."

"Herself or you?"

Kol turned to his sister, whose words had been plenty accusatory, and his brow rose. The anger that twisted and darkened her usually soft face only fueled his own anger, the anger he hadn't meant to feel towards anyone but himself. What had he honestly just done?

 _Acted_. That was what he had done. Without action, there wasn't change, and Darcy absolutely couldn't be sired to him for all of eternity.

"What did you want me to do, Bekah?"

"Think a little bit before you just act!" she exclaimed, and if the rage in her eyes wasn't enough to show Kol that he had royally screwed up, the tone dripping off each word _was_.

"Acting is what gets things done," he said. "She can't be sired to me, Bex."

"Maybe things get done," she agreed. "But it's also incredibly selfish."

"What was I supposed to do?" Kol hated hearing the word said directly, hated realizing the truth of everything he had just done to the woman he loved. Love wasn't supposed to be selfish, but he _had_ been selfish, so desperate to give her the free will she absolutely deserved that he didn't even realize. "Leave her sired to me for the rest of eternity?"

"No!" she exclaimed, but she scoffed. "You were just supposed to deal with the consequences of your actions long enough to find a safe alternative! You made her an Original. You should have figured out how to safely turn off her humanity before you just did it!"

He knew that he was stupid. He knew that he had acted in the completely wrong way, and it showed on everyone's faces. There were tears in Elena's eyes, anger in Damon's—even Elijah looked furious about what Kol had done.

How could he have done that? How could he have been that selfish with her? She had kept so many things to herself, so many pains to ensure everyone's life was good. She didn't tell Kol the things that made her being a vampire horrible. Instead, she kept it to herself, to give him the few days he had had to enjoy the elation of his love being safe, of her being immortal and _durable_.

What had he done? Whatever he pleased. He had stupidly believed the way that Caroline had, that Kol and the twins would be enough simply because they had to be, because there was no other way to turn on her humanity.

But . . . but there was, wasn't there? She had refused to look him in the eye for more than a second, refused to see anything that Kol might be feeling. She was the strangest vampire he had ever seen without humanity. If her itching to kill something was that horrible, why didn't she try to kill the twins? Why hadn't she tried to kill anyone in the room?

Because the Darcy who cared about everyone, who cared about the twins and Kol, she was still in there, locked away. She wasn't just gone.

She refused to look him in the eyes and see anything he felt, so would that be it? The trigger to her humanity? It wasn't just him, and it wasn't the twins, but maybe his pain? His suffering?

He didn't know what he had to do, not exactly, but he knew that he had a short time to figure _something_ out. With every eye staring at him, waiting on him to say something, he did something else. He reached down to grab Darcy's body from the floor and disappeared, up to their room.

It didn't matter to him what they said at this point. All that mattered to him was fixing his mistake, ensuring that Darcy didn't take a single life—no matter how hard it was for him to do that.

He wouldn't let his selfishness ruin her. She would have the purity she desired, and Kol would kill everyone in their path to ensure that she never had to.

No matter how much it hurt her . . . until Darcy, with her humanity, could look him in the eye and say with complete sincerity that she wanted to kill someone, that she wanted to trigger her curse and stop hurting, he wouldn't let her. He wouldn't see her as anything less for it, for freeing herself the way that she deserved to be free, but until _Darcy_ could tell him that, he refused to let it happen.

Now would be no different.

Though he laid her on the bed, he didn't plan to just leave her there. His mind was racing, going through any ideas that might actually work to keep her down long enough for him to use his pain to trigger her humanity somehow.

He wasn't entirely sure that was it, but he could find out easily enough.

This would be hard on him, but he didn't actually care how hard it was. It was time to deal with the consequences of what he had done. Somehow, even though Darcy had the potential to be stronger than anyone he could ever hope to contain, he would find a way.

He would absolutely ensure the Original tribrid didn't hurt anyone.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the delay of the update! I tried updating all day yesterday, but I got that same error message over and over again. It eventually occurred to me that I could just paste a chapter onto an old chapter and update that way, so that's why I'm updating now.**

 **I'll update another today, to make up for yesterday and to post one today. For now, here's the next chapter. :) I hope I write a vampire without emotions well. I've noticed that each vampire without humanity is different, and Tashio pretty accurately guessed the kind of person I felt Darcy would be without her humanity. Very logical indeed.**

 **Also, there will be random necks snapped, and I try to transition between them without Darcy realizing that her neck is being snapped because, obviously, she's temporarily dead and wouldn't realize what happened exactly.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	25. 24: Humanity

"Take a step  
Back for a minute, into the kitchen.  
Floors are wet  
And taps are still running, dishes are broken.  
How did we get into this mess? Got so aggressive.  
I know we meant all good intentions.

So pull me closer.  
Why don't you pull me close?  
Why don't you come on over?  
I can't just let you go.

Baby, why don't you just meet me in the middle?  
I'm losing my mind just a little."

 _The Middle_ : Grey feat. Maren Morris, Grey

* * *

"Chains with vervain? How'd you manage that?"

My eyes were still closed when I said this, but I had just barely come to when my wrists burning made sense, when my brain pieced together that someone had chained me up with chains covered in vervain. Just because I was a new vampire didn't mean I was stupid. I had seen what vervain did to vampires, heard the way it burned their skin.

This was _definitely_ vervain.

"You underestimate just what I'd do for you, Darcy Gilbert."

At the sound of Kol's voice, soft and full of things I didn't want to hear right now, or even begin to try and understand, my eyes pulled open.

He sat on the floor of our bedroom, with one long leg stretched out and the other pulled to his chest. His hands rested on his knee, but his gaze was locked on me.

Though I was awake, there was a strange absence of strength. It wasn't the vervain on the chains, as I could feel the strength that came with being an Original vampire. Obviously I wasn't human, but I felt weakened, as if there was vervain in my bloodstream somehow.

I wouldn't have put it past Damon and Stefan. It was practically their trademark.

My eyes darted away from his eyes, instead moved lower to his lips, to the soft features of his jaw. He was seriously handsome, in a way that deserved to be boasted around to everyone, as he was so fond of doing.

"If you were gonna tie me up, you could've at least done it _on_ the bed so we could have some fun with it."

One corner of his mouth started to pull up, but the other remained flat. There were so many emotions clouding around his eyes that I didn't dare take a look at them. I knew that Originals could feel things strongly, and right now, I did _not_ want that rubbing off on me.

"Why do you want to keep your humanity off, love?"

"I told you exactly why." I straightened myself up, leaning back against the bed and ignoring the way the vervain burned against my skin the more I moved. Sometimes you had to hurt a bit to get comfortable. "I'm tired of the part of me that's locked away trying to claw its way out. I'd rather just kill someone and be free."

"You didn't care before," he reminded me. "When your humanity was on, you didn't want to kill anyone. I made a promise to you a long time ago, before I ever turned you, that I would absolutely kill anyone who got in our way so that you would never have to."

"Just stop." I shook my head, fighting the urge to grind my teeth together. "You can quit trying to remind me of the pain I put myself through so that someone else doesn't have to suffer, alright? I don't care. I just want this to be over."

I didn't know what he might say to that, but with his love for me getting in the way of his logic, it'd probably be something sweet, something that might trigger some kind of flicker of an emotional response, and I didn't want that.

Instead, I decided to use one of the first spells I truly learned, one that he had taught me. Tapping into the power of my blood, I began using the pain infliction spell on his mind, busting the blood vessels of his brain.

All it took was one glance, one moment of his visible pain, and it hit me. My weakness was Kol, and if anything was gonna make me feel something . . . so I stopped. I didn't wanna feel yet, and I could figure ways around this without hurting him. Pain was something that he had felt his entire life, so manipulating him through pain wasn't really the best option anyways.

"Why did you stop?"

 _Fuck_.

Most of the time, my own love for Kol got in the way of seeing the man that he really was—ruthless, calculating, and above all else, lethal. He hadn't killed many people since I pulled the dagger from his chest, but that didn't change who he was inside.

He was a vampire, and it was time I learned what that meant. If I let my emotions get in the way of that, I would never know true peace. I would never know what it meant to be free.

I gave him the best smile I could, which without guilt or fear that he might see past the lie was a damn good innocent façade. "Mmm. I can think of something else I'd rather be doing with you."

"You are insatiable without humanity, aren't you?"

"Honey, I'm insatiable _with_ humanity," I snorted. "I just let my humanity block it out because it might be rude to lock us away and fuck all day long."

He seemed surprised to hear that, but the smile that actually pulled across his lips was damn worth revealing what I might regret later, with my humanity back on. "Really now?"

"If I have to tell you that you're handsome, you're not as smart as I thought."

"Oh, I'm aware of that," he assured me, and he straightened his one leg out, pulling his bottom lip in with his teeth. "And I'm more than aware that you are one of the most stunning creatures I've ever met. Have you seen our children? Really?"

"You think talking about our family is gonna work?" I asked. "Because quite frankly, our family is exactly why I need to do this."

He shook his head. "No, I don't think that. I know for a fact that our family won't trigger your humanity. You proved that when you looked at the twins and simply stated that they were cute."

"Then what are we doing here, if it's not having fun with bondage?" I asked, and I tugged at the chains a bit. His body was alert, clearly expecting me to break through them, but what purpose did that serve right now? He was just gonna chase after me. "Because believe me, we can have some fun with this."

He let out a breath. "There was a time I would've taken you up on that offer."

"Oh?" I bit down onto my bottom lip, batted my eyelashes in the innocent way that he called his darkest temptation. "Why not now?"

When he tried to grab onto my gaze with his own, I knew better than to actually look into his eyes, so I began letting them graze across his body some more, thinking about all the yummy things that hid beneath his clothes. "Because I'm too in love with you to sleep with you when you don't care, when it means nothing to you."

"It's still _with_ you," I pointed out.

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. It will mean nothing, and every moment we have . . . Darcy, it all means something."

That was tragic, an entire relationship without a single moment of just not caring at all. If I thought about it, it would probably be something besides tragic, but tragic was what kept the emotions in check, hidden behind the flipped switch.

My mind was racing, trying to think of anything I might've learned to help me right now. With the vervain in my system, I didn't know if I was honestly strong enough to break the chains, with the strength of a vampire. I wasn't just a vampire, though.

Remembering one of the telekinetic spells that Shea had taught me, I broke the chains from around me and rushed to climb into his lap, to pull out the things Kol felt for me effortlessly. I didn't care to see the love right now. I just wanted all the lust, to get everything I wanted.

If I could get him to sleep with me, getting away to kill someone would be easy.

I began kissing down his jawbone, down the length of his neck, and I let my teeth scrape against the skin. Just when he thought I was going to pull away, I sank my teeth in and began to drink from him.

He ripped me away easily. "Oh no. You have no reason to stop."

"Why do I have to stop?" I poked my bottom lip out and batted my eyelashes. "I just wanna fuck you really bad right now, Kol. Come on! Just think about it for a second. Don't you wanna know what it's like when there's nothing holding me back? When all I want is to fuck for the pleasure of it all?"

I was suddenly laying on the bed, with Kol's body on top of mine, and his lips moved against me with a fervor of a horny lover. I refused to look in his eyes, but hot damn, his body was doing all the talking. Pressing me back into the bed, I was able to get his shirt from off his body.

He was letting me fuck him.

His lips were hungry, on a mission, and holy _fuck_ , I was all for this mission. They moved down to the top of my dress, kissing along the breasts that were trying to poke out of the top of it.

The warmth of his fingers moving up the skin of my arms, moving to cradle my face so that he could kiss along the parts of my neck he loved to taste the most . . . .

* * *

I was a fucking idiot.

Seriously, I was the worst at this no humanity thing. Emotions had clouded over my life far too much, and I didn't know how to properly be without them.

Klaus had once told me that I would be the worst vampire in the world, and he was right. Even without humanity, I still couldn't just fucking kill someone.

My body jerked against the chains, which were tightly wrapped back around me, and I let my eyes open, let my glare harden at the smug face of a fully dressed Kol Mikaelson.

"You're gonna regret this."

The light in his eyes died a bit, but the smile remained. "No, love, I'm not. I'm actually ensuring that you _don't_ regret this."

There were other ways to get what I wanted. Melting the chains from around me was easy enough, but before I could even get through the inner layer, Kol was on the bed behind me, both hands around my neck.

"I'll just keep breaking your neck until you realize that you're not going anywhere without your humanity turned back on."

This was far from over, but I _did_ stop melting the chains, at least for now. He was too alert at the moment, and right now, that was the last thing I needed him to be.

"This is kinky." I turned up towards him and smirked. "Mmm. Why don't you choke me while you're at it? Ooh. This really is some hot kinky fetish, isn't it?"

"I have slept with women and then slit their throats as soon as I was done with them," he informed me. "I have brought two women to bed, compelled one to drink the blood of the other, and then killed them both when I was finished. No, Darcy, I have no kinky fetishes. I've lived them all, and they're nothing that I want. They never were."

This was a history lesson, one that I had never learned about Kol. I wondered if I would remember it when I had my humanity back, or if my emotions would see that it was just his past that didn't matter. I guess, even without humanity, his past _didn't_ matter, except that his past was keeping him from letting me better my future.

His hands fell from around my neck, and he moved quickly to sit back in front of me. He was closer this time, with both legs pulled against him.

"Why do you feel things so strongly for me?" he whispered, but his eyes weren't on me. They were looking towards somewhere else in the room, the same thing he always did when his mind was on dark and painful things.

"My love for you won't bring my emotions back."

"That almost hurts." His lips pulled up a bit, and his eyes dared to dart my way. "I do deserve the pain, though. I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but I think the thing I'm struggling with right now is what I've done to you. I do hope you won't forgive me so easily once this is all over. What I did was wrong."

His eyes moved away again, and I realized then exactly what was going on. When we were together, back before things got hard and real, he would tell me that I was the light in his life that he didn't deserve, but he didn't dwell too much on the past.

If he was diving into the hard parts of the past now, pulling out any semblance of pain he could feel, it was for a purpose.

I snorted. "That'd be sad if it was real."

"But it is real." His soft smile twisted into a large grin. "See, Darcy, even without your humanity, you still care far too much for me for your own good. My pain is what will trigger your humanity."

"I'm serious." I could feel the muscles of my face tighten, feel it twist into a glare that I didn't imagine I'd be capable of if I actually cared. "Leave me alone."

He rubbed his hand across his chin, but the grin didn't fade, not even a little. "See, when you stopped doing the spell and blowing up my mind, it almost perfectly confirmed the theory I already had about how to trigger your humanity. Seeing you deflect now, to pretend that you don't know this is real . . . it only confirms it."

"Just leave me alone," I said, but the words were whispers, meant to appeal to the part of him that loved me, not the part that was here now, doing whatever he could to stop and contain me. "I just wanna be free, to be who I was always meant to be. Why are you stopping me from that when it's the best thing for me?"

He took a deep breath. "When the woman I love has her humanity back and can tell me that same thing, we'll go kill someone together. We'll make a date of it."

I knew then that I had to get away, and in the back of mind, I began thinking through every spell I knew, anything I might could do to get the chains off of me. It would have to be instant, and it'd have to contain him somehow at that.

"It won't work," I told him, with as little fire in my words as I could manage. The more empty things sounded, the more he might believe what I was trying to tell him. All I wanted to do was kill someone.

"I know that," he said. "See, words don't mean anything, but daggers do, which is why I told my siblings where they were."

I could feel it, creeping in through my veins and moving up my body towards my heart, but shutting down fear was easy when it had to work so hard to be felt. "You wouldn't do that."

"One day, you will believe me when I say that I will do absolutely anything for you, Darcy."

He had . . . he had really done it. He had let his love for me cloud over his better judgement, and he had told them where to find the daggers, at least one. I didn't imagine they were all hidden together, but what did I really know? He never even told _me_ where they were, not that I had ever bothered to ask. I didn't wanna know.

It clicked in my mind, the spell I was thinking of, and in an instant, I had the chains unraveling from my body and moving to wrap around his. It was fast enough that he couldn't break my neck, that he couldn't stop me, and I took that chance to get out of our room.

My feet were bare, empty of the shoes they had once worn, and that helped me move a lot more silently. As a vampire, I could move without being detected by even a vampire, but in heels, it was impossible, no matter how hard I tried.

Just as I got down the stairs, glancing over my shoulder to ensure no one was following me, I felt it, the pain of something piercing into me. It was a knife of some sort, maybe even the shape of one of the daggers, and it hurt. I had never been stabbed before, but I was a vampire, so it didn't hurt like I imagined it would've hurt a human.

Klaus' eyes were dark when he glared into mine. "I knew this wouldn't work."

Using magic to throw him off of me was easy, but the dagger remained in my chest. It completely ruined the nice dress that I wore, and for that, I was pissed.

"Fuck you!" I exclaimed, and I ripped the dagger out of me. "You ruined my dress. I actually liked this one." I held the dagger in one hand, studying it carefully. I wouldn't have put it past them to use something similar, something that might appear like a dagger, but this actually looked exactly like one of the daggers. "Was he really stupid enough to tell you where they were?"

Rebekah took a few steps forward, to reveal her presence to me. So far, all I had seen were the Originals, and I wondered if that had something to do with the fact that killing one of the other vampires would've triggered my curse.

I was a lot of things, but I knew what I would have to face eventually. Killing a random stranger? I could live with that. Killing someone I cared about? There was no way.

At some point during my captivity, night had fallen, so the lighting inside the living room was brighter than I was used to. I took a chance to look around, and with only Rebekah and Klaus in the room, I took comfort in that.

"He was, actually," she informed me. "Most were too far away to reach, but there was one he always kept on him."

I rolled my eyes and tightened my grip around the handle. "I can't believe I'm looking out for him when I don't care right now."

Rebekah had been watching me carefully, with a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her lips, but there was nothing holding it back now. "Except you do."

I did _not_ wanna hear that, so I used some magic to break her neck, as Kol had so handily taught me to do to protect me from his brother.

That same brother Kol tried to protect me from was fighting the urge to laugh, and maybe it was because of how callously I had just snapped her neck, without even flinching at the sound of her bones cracking.

It didn't bother me any more than it bothered them to break mine, probably even less so. I knew she'd come back.

At the sound of bones breaking, however, the only other two Original brothers who had yet to make an appearance stepped into the room together, both wearing mirrored expressions of resolution, of two men who would stand tall and defeat the careless Original hybrid, who just wanted to make herself a tribrid.

I smirked at the duo and took a step back. "Ooh. Is this, like, some Original showdown? I feel like that's a movie or something. Of course, it's not talking about the Original vampires, but—"

Klaus's amusement at his sister's broken neck only grew the more I began to ramble pointlessly, to the point it shimmered in his usually dark eyes. "Most nights, Darcy, I would ignore my brother's warnings and let you go run, be free, but I'm feeling a bit of a familial love going on tonight. I've stationed hybrids at every exit, and they are to bite you if they see you."

"Cute." My eyebrows knit together, at the mention of his hybrids who I didn't even know by name. "Hey, if I kill a hybrid, would that trigger my curse?"

Some of his amusement died out, and the familiar darkness was scratching at the surface. "I don't recommend finding out."

At the feeling of an arm tightly wrapping around my neck, I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know who was holding me by the throat. The chains were only meant to hold him long enough for me to get out of the house, but he had to have his siblings downstairs waiting.

Bastard.

His hand slid around me, down my arm to the hand which held the dagger tightly, but his lips got close to my ear. "Why do you have the dagger if you don't care about me?"

It was easy enough to push him away with magic, only far enough that I could turn and give him another warning glare.

"Leave it alone, Kol."

Seeing his smile . . . damn it, it was getting hard to not care, to only see an attractive man with a pretty smile. The things that I felt, for Kol especially, had started clawing out, maybe at the beginning, but they were undeniable the more that this went on, the more pain that he revealed to me.

Why had he gotten the daggers involved? It was his best kept secret, the most guarded protection he had on himself. His biggest fear, especially now, was his brother using the dagger against him, and he had just given it to him? Just like that?

At least I had fixed his mistake. He could hide it again, somewhere better this time.

"I won't leave it alone, Darcy," he whispered. "I want the woman that I love back. More than just trying to fix what I've screwed up, I would like to talk to _you_ again, not the rather callous woman who drives a hard bargain for meaningless things."

I took a step back from him. "Well, you've effectively turned them all down, so I'm done trying."

"But I'm not."

Someone's phone began buzzing inside of their pockets, and it only took one glance towards Elijah and Finn to realize that it was Elijah's phone. He had been the sort of designated go to person if something was going wrong, the one that everyone agreed to call.

I felt another arm wrap around my neck, and Kol tensed with the sight of his brother holding me this way, threatening me this way. It was almost sweet, but it was annoying right now.

Kol held a hand up, the one that didn't currently hold the dagger. "Relax, Nik."

I didn't know if he was actually gonna do that, but I didn't give him much option. Using magic to hurt Kol just wasn't something I could do, but a pain infliction spell on Klaus? There were many parts of me, even with my humanity, that kinda wanted to hurt him a bit, even if I had let bygones be bygones.

Without humanity, I didn't care about bygones and revenge. I didn't care about anything—except Kol apparently.

 _No_.

Klaus was brought to his knees instantly, and I could hear the pain through his clenched teeth.

Kol took a single glance at his brother before holding both hands out this time, in an attempt to stop me from moving any closer to the door. "You're an Original, love, and that has made this both difficult and fun, but we've got centuries of experience under our belts, experience you will never have. You won't get out of this house."

I gestured towards Klaus, still on his knees and moaning in pain. "Yeah, but I've got magic, so . . . ."

It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't shown Kol all the things that Shea and Prisca had shown me. The Gemini had a lot of sneaky spells, ranging from cloaking, blood swapping, illusion, and going all the way to their fucked up merge ceremony spell.

Only two of those would help me out in this current situation, so instead of inflicting pain on Klaus' brain, I decided to do something much more fun. First, I cloaked us both, and watching Kol's eyes widen so far that I wondered if they might pop out of his head was pretty hilarious.

Then I made Klaus reappear, but he looked like me, through a simple illusion spell. Kol, clearly catching on that I was capable of more things than even _he_ knew, didn't hesitate to snap my neck.

Well, at least that's what he _thought_. I actually ran across the room, to sit on the mantle of the fireplace, to get the perfect view of the fun I was getting to have with him.

"Shea was right. Illusion spells _are_ fun."

Kol looked at me for a moment, but then he looked back to the person he _thought_ was me, the brother whose neck had been snapped because I made him look just like me.

I could feel my lips growing into the best smirk I knew how, and I began kicking my legs against the frame of the fireplace beneath me. "So are you gonna let me have my fun now, or are you gonna make this more difficult? I'm clearly capable of more than you know, sweetheart, and I will break this curse."

Elijah stepped back into the room before Kol even got a chance to answer me, but he wasn't just rejoining for the sake of containing me. He came into the room with a purpose, a _vengeance_ , and with him glaring at Kol the moment he could see his brother, I knew who it was directed towards.

"We don't have time for this nonsense! If you had just _waited_ —"

Kol let out a shaky breath, cutting his brother off immediately. "I know, Elijah, but what is going on?"

It was getting harder to tell the truth from the lies, especially seeing Elijah so angry with Kol. I didn't really know much about why they were so mad at him. Was it because of his rash decision to turn off my humanity?

He was . . . he was just trying to give me free will.

"This won't work." I said the words, but they were soft. I couldn't even believe them myself, and I knew for certain that they wouldn't believe a single one of them.

Elijah's glare shifted to me, though I still didn't think it was directed _at_ me. "This isn't a trick. I just got a call from Prisca. They spotted a member of the Gemini coven in town, while they were all out at dinner letting us clean up Kol's mess. It wasn't just a random member either. It was one of their elite."

Fear . . . it was the last thing I wanted to feel, but it was the first thing to overpower me, to break through the already crumbling wall that had kept my humanity hidden away. It was back now. I didn't know if they were watching me, if they could even see it, but I could feel it coming out strong, could feel it pounding my heart inside my chest.

It felt like it weighed a million pounds, yet it was somehow being squeezed, tight enough that the blood in my veins began to freeze. More than fear, I felt pain. Everything Kol had done . . . and for what? For me to just waste the day, while the Gemini were closing in the entire time?

What was going on?

* * *

 **A/N: I used to think that I kinda liked cliffhangers, but I've come to realize that I'm actually really fond of them. I hate reading them, but . . . x3**

 **Anyways, yay. Her humanity is back. :D I thought about making it a bit harder, but the next chapter would've just flipped it back on with Kol's pain being the trigger, so there wasn't much point in delaying it.**

 **I hope you guys like where the story is going!**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	26. 25: The Hardest Choice of All

"We have fallen.  
We have fallen again tonight.  
Where do we go from here  
When they're tearing down our lives?  
When all they want is,  
When all they want is  
For us to live in fear,  
How long can we hold on?  
Can we hold on?"

 _Collide_ : Skillet

* * *

I didn't imagine I could hold the twins any closer without crushing them, but even if someone found our home, they would struggle to find us. They would tear the house apart, but unless they physically touched us, they would never find us.

They didn't have to be able to find us to tear us down, to destroy the twins somehow. Maybe they could just burn the house down or use magic to kill us all. If there was one thing I had learned from my time on the road with two of the Gemini's best witches, two held in the highest esteem, it was that the Gemini were deadly because you never saw them coming.

I didn't imagine they'd come in guns blazing. Shea and Prisca said it wasn't their style, and they had a coven before all else mentality. They wouldn't risk any lives for a direct attack, so for the night, I felt at peace—safe enough that I wasn't on high alert.

Still, it didn't hurt to cloak us all. It was harder to cloak more people, but I was desperate. Leaving out Klaus' hybrids wasn't ideal, but it was necessary to ensure the twins were properly cloaked and safe, to ensure all the people I loved more than myself were cloaked and safe.

Everyone under the spell was in the living room, sitting closer together than we might have when we were just casually hanging out. This was different. It had all so suddenly become real, and the elation that my humanity was back on, without anyone dying, hadn't even sunk in, more than Elena whispering that she was glad to see me.

If the twins' lives had to be in danger for my humanity to flip on, I wouldn't have wished for it. I would've rather lived with the pain of killing someone than wish for their lives to be at risk.

How could someone kill them? They were just babies.

Kol was the farthest from me, and I think it was part of his way of punishing himself. He was so upset about what he had done, and it didn't matter that I didn't even care. Yes, he had told me to turn off my humanity against my will, but then he did whatever it took to ensure I didn't kill anyone. He didn't have to do all of that. Lying and saying that I overpowered them would've been easy, but he didn't. He stood his ground against me until my humanity was back on.

What was there to be upset about? He was gonna punish himself more than enough for the both of us. That alone was obvious enough in the pain that had solidified the warm chocolate of his eyes, that had brought out the Original vampire that I had heard stories about. The Kol that I loved wasn't completely gone, but he was hiding behind his pain.

The silence had never been so loud before, and that was a statement. We had had plenty of deafening silences, silences that had been so uncomfortable that it left a chill in the air, but this was even worse somehow.

Shea was the first to shift, to lean forward and use her elbow to prop herself up. "I think I know what drew them to Phoenix."

I wasn't the only one to look at her, but I was the only one to not care about trying to figure out what she was thinking on my own. "What? We've been so careful."

Her eyes squeezed shut, and her lips pressed together, for just a moment. "The spirits on the Other Side can sometimes connect with people on this side of the Veil, through objects or dreams."

It was hard to understand what she was saying. "So the spirits did it? Do you think it was Esther?"

She took a deep breath. "I don't know, but I do know this. The spirits don't like imbalance, Darcy. When your kids were born, the Gemini knew. Anyone who knew you were pregnant knew."

"But that's been months," I insisted. "How could that lead them here?"

"Because the spirits don't like imbalance."

Hearing Kol speak up, for the first time since everyone had gotten back, surprised me, but not as much as the pain that suddenly broke through the hard, icy Original shell. Pain had hardened him, but it had also broken him, so much that he covered his face to hide from me, to hide from everyone.

I didn't get to ask because he just left, disappearing out of the living room before I could even begin to understand why he might've gotten so upset.

All I could do, as the tears began forming in my eyes, was look to Shea, who had tears of her own. I didn't know what was going through her head, but whatever it was . . . it had Kol upset, breaking.

What was I missing? What imbalance were they talking about?

Shea focused on her hands, to avoid the inevitable tears, but a couple slid down anyways. To see _Shea_ cry had me crying as well, and I hated that. Not even an hour ago, emotions didn't matter to me, but they were coming out strong now. I could almost feel my heart crumbling.

"What's going on?" I whispered.

She took a deep breath. "He made you an Original tribrid, Darcy. You can't die. You're a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire—everything nature hates about what your children could be."

Every part of me wanted to jump up, to chase after him and demand he stop whatever thoughts were destroying him. He had been bad enough, just with what he had done to turn off my humanity. He hadn't thought twice about making me an Original, but it was like every choice he had made on his own at this point was just blowing up in his face.

Everything he had done had been for love. Everything he had done had been to protect me, to protect our kids, and somehow, it had done the opposite of that.

"So his idiocy lured them here?"

Klaus was the absolute last person I wanted to hear speak up, but he just didn't know how to keep his mouth shut when the time called for it.

I had to place the kids in Elena and Caroline's arms, who were closest to me, but I stood to my feet, giving him the best glare that I could, with my humanity turned on and all. "You don't get to start saying that right now. You know, most of this probably comes from the fact that he's so fucking scared of you that he has to go to extreme measures to protect the people he loves."

Klaus glared at me now, without holding anything back. I think he was a bit bitter because I used an illusion spell and had his neck snapped, but he had no room to talk or start with me. "And here I thought we were over all that."

"You don't get to play the victim here," I snapped. "Everything he's done has been to protect his family, and he doesn't need you making things worse. He needs his brother to support him, not kick him while he's down."

Right now, staying in place served no purpose. Great, we figured out what led them here, and we knew not to do it again. It didn't change what had happened, though. I was an Original tribrid, but through all of that, I wasn't dead. I was no longer sired to Kol, and he was no longer bound to me.

There were so many silver linings, hidden behind the death looming around the corner. Could the Gemini kill our kids? Could they get through us?

 _No_. They absolutely would not get through us.

I found Kol in our room, but he had gotten himself a cup of blood along the way, as Finn and Sage were back with blood bags. I didn't know where they had gone to get so many, but it was becoming a bit of a problem. Klaus actually had to order the hybrids to feed on people, but he also commanded them to leave their victims alive because there needed to be no traces, no dead bodies lying around.

It didn't matter anymore, though, did it?

Kol sat on the cushioned bench at the edge of the bed, holding the mostly empty cup of blood while his eyes stared at the floor as if it was the most intricate piece of art he had ever seen—or at least had seen in a long while.

Maybe it was. If the art gallery we had gone to on our first date was the last piece of art he had seen, the floor was probably more interesting than most, if not all, of that art. It was just a soft grey carpet, almost silver, but at least it wasn't a blank white slate.

"I make all the wrong choices, don't I?"

I was beside him in a second, but I sat down slower than I had moved. "No."

He let out a breath and stared at the cup in his hand before finishing it off, maybe so I didn't get a chance to smell it and get lost in my blood craze. "You haven't had time to process what I did to you earlier."

I shrugged. "You broke my neck. Big deal."

"I turned off your humanity against your will," he corrected, but the words were dark, _angry_. The anger wasn't directed at me, but it didn't have to be. It was directed at himself, and that hurt just as badly, if not worse.

"Because you wanted me to have my free will," I said. "Kol, please—"

"I did it for myself, Darcy." He leaned down to set the glass down, and I appreciated the fact that he didn't shatter it against the wall—glass is a bitch to clean up out of carpet. "I did it because I don't like the idea of you being bound to me like I was you. I don't like the idea of having to watch what I say, or think about every little thing I do. Yes, I wanted you to have your free will, but I could've _waited_."

"What do you want?" I whispered. "What do you want me to say? Because I know what you did, and it doesn't matter."

"I want you to let my family say what needs to be said." His eyes moved to me, to stare directly into my own, but with my humanity back, I absolutely couldn't bear the thought of looking away, no matter how much pain I saw inside. "I don't want you to stick up for me. I want you to be angry! I want you to make me understand that everything has a consequence."

"I'm pretty sure this is gonna seal that in for you," I disagreed. "Everything we do has a consequence, good or bad, and you've spent your entire life not having to deal with them. You've either run from the consequences or been daggered until it didn't matter anymore. As far as being mad at you, I can't. If I had killed someone, I might've been angry, but I didn't."

"You wanted to." His eyes narrowed, tightening at the corners, but that only focused the pain. "You . . . there were moments I wanted to let you, to let you feel relief."

"But I didn't." I placed my hand on his. "You saw to it that I didn't, no matter how hard it was to do. Everything I told you without humanity was true, as much as I fear I may regret saying that."

Though the pain was far from gone, a small piece of light shimmered across the golden specks in his eyes. "Are you referring to the insatiable thing?"

"Yeah."

"I don't see why you might regret that," he murmured. "We'll just fuck a lot more, I assure you. I won't hold myself back."

It was a horrible time to smile, but I couldn't help it. The fact that I was able to get him to talk about something besides how badly he had screwed up, when he hadn't actually done anything that I considered a screw up, gave me reason to smile. "I won't let you wallow in self-pity, alright? You've made your choices, and there's nothing that can be done about that. All we can do now is figure out where to go from here."

Though I didn't imagine he was over it just yet, he shut the pain away, cleared his mind so he might focus on what was most important—the danger our kids were now in.

"You're right." He took a deep breath. "I suppose we should go back downstairs and figure this out then."

I didn't say anything, not until I stood up and crossed the room. There was a stereo in the corner, and it didn't matter what music played when I turned it on. All that mattered was that there was some noise to drown out what I was about to say, what _we_ were about to say.

"No." I turned back to him, after the music began to play, and shrugged. "These are our kids, Kol. Above all else, it's our say. I'm done fighting with your brother about this."

"You're right." As I stepped closer to the bench, his arms reached out to grab onto me, to wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him, close enough that his head had to tilt all the way up to see me. "What do we need to do, Darcy? Where do you want to go?"

"We can't go anywhere," I whispered. "They know where I am, right? We can't keep running. If I've learned nothing else from all of this, it's that running gets you nowhere. I ran, and for what? Sure, I met some great people, but in the end, we're still here. We're still fighting to keep them alive."

A line formed between his brow, but he simply rested his chin against my stomach, as if he were leaning on me for support. "What are you suggesting we do?"

Though it was adorable, having Kol holding me the way that he was, what I was coming to terms with in my mind . . . it was getting impossible to block out tears. "We can't run anymore."

We couldn't, could we? Running had only gotten us here, still able to be found by the Gemini. Sure, we could go somewhere else, and we could never use magic again, but for how long? How long could we keep this up?

Our time on the run was limited. It was a long shot anyways, and in the end, someone would always find us. I didn't really know what kind of hold the spirits had, but if the Gemini were able to find us simply because Kol turned me into an Original tribrid, what was gonna happen when the twins started showing signs of having magic? We couldn't control that, and the Gemini could probably sense it, somehow.

"We can't stay here," he reminded me. "The entire Gemini coven will probably come straight here, if they're not already here and waiting for the perfect moment. It's not safe."

Despite his adorable hold on me, I had to sit down. I had to grab onto his hand and stare at our intertwined fingers, nothing more. If I looked at him, I was afraid of what I might see, of what might happen, and in this moment, I had to say what was on my mind. I had to tell him the best solution my brain was coming up with, no matter how hard it was gonna be.

"You're right. Phoenix isn't safe." My words only confused him, maybe paired with the tears I couldn't hold back anymore. "Phoenix isn't safe for Theia and Alastor, but I have to stay here."

"No." His head shook even after the word got out, and his hand let go of mine, so both of his could cradle my face. "Darcy, _no_."

I closed my eyes, to fight back the tears, but damn it, they just wouldn't go away. I guess expecting them to was silly because I was an Original vampire, and I was talking about sending my babies, not even three months old, away from me.

"I said that I would do whatever it took to protect my children," I said, but the words were choked by the sobs I desperately wanted to hold back. Right now, until they were gone and somewhere safe, I couldn't crumple. I had to hold strong. "This is what it's gonna take."

He gripped my face tighter, rubbed his thumbs across the skin to force my eyes back open, so I could see the desperation in his eyes, the tears pricking the usual warmth. "I won't let you do this, Darcy."

"So I've made my choice," I continued, almost as if he hadn't said a word. If I listened to him, I might actually listen to him, and right now, he needed to listen to me. These were our kids, but this was what our kids needed. He had to listen to that, to understand. "Tomorrow, Theia and Alastor will be taken out of Phoenix, somewhere safe."

"No!"

"And I will stay here and wait for the Gemini because if they're here, they can't be wherever Alastor and Theia are."

His protests died, one hand falling from my face as my words struck a chord. Hearing it said like that, his arguments faded away. The resolution to keep me from making this decision dissolved, and all he could do was stare, stare and come to terms with the very choice I was struggling to do the same with.

Right now, I couldn't handle it, and I needed something to help, something to comfort me. Maybe it was horrible and wrong, and maybe I was the worst mother in the world. Maybe Theia and Alastor would be better off this way, but I needed comfort right now. I needed something to take my mind off the fact that I was about to make another hard decision for my life.

Leaving everything and everyone I had ever loved behind had been the hardest thing I had done to date, and this . . . this was the first choice I had made that even compared. I had barely been back a month, and I was already making yet another heart wrenching decision, one that I didn't want to say out-loud—but I would have to, as soon as we went back downstairs to tell everyone else.

The only comfort I knew, the only thing that could ever make me feel better and forget all of the bad, was Kol. There were different kinds of comfort, but I stuck with something basic, a single kiss. It was meant to soothe the agony, to ease my troubled thoughts, but I underestimated the pain we both felt with this decision. I had forgotten, for even just a few moments, that these weren't just my kids that I was sending away. They were _ours_ , and just like the choice I made to leave town to protect the twins had a profound effect on Kol, the same effect that it had on me, this choice was going to affect him just as it did me.

These were our kids, and we had to send them away.

I didn't mean to straddle him, to turn it into something more, but it had been such a long day, and it wasn't over. What had started out as just another day adjusting to my Original vampirism turned into a day spent without humanity, learning things about Kol that I had never known and him doing the same for me, and it became a nightmare so quickly.

We had to address that soon, somehow say the words out-loud without breaking down, and if it was wrong to need Kol to do that, then I was wrong, and I would always be wrong. I didn't care.

I felt it, with the urgency of his lips against mine. I felt his own need for _me_ in the kiss, in the way he crushed me into his body. It wasn't meant to be the beginning of foreplay, something more than a kiss, but there was so much pain and desperation, so much passion and love . . . it was something we couldn't control, yet I didn't want to. This was the comfort that I yearned for.

The only reason I was able to pull myself away was because I felt my hands roaming down on their own, moving towards the bottom hem of his shirt, and that was absolutely bad, at least right now. We had to spend time with our children, had to tell everyone the plan and fully make one—but we had to say our goodbyes before anything else.

He looked so lost when I pulled away, but his eyes held mine, and he was suddenly found. It was amazing to see, to see how much I could really change in him, but I absolutely loved it.

"You're right, by the way," I informed him. "So much better when it means something."

Even though we were trying to come to terms with yet another excruciating decision, he gave me a small smile. "I know, believe me."

My lips moved to grab onto his, but a random thought flashed across my mind, as my thoughts were focusing on everything that had happened—including the things I had learned from today. "So you seriously made someone drink the blood of her friend?"

He leaned back closer to the bed and groaned, though his hands remained on my hips. "Let's not do this, please."

"You're right. Sorry." I began gnawing on my bottom lip, and my eyes darted away from his, towards the stiff muscles of his jaw. "You've just . . . never talked about all that before."

"I never wanted to," he admitted, and though his voice was soft, there was so much pain in it that I wanted to cry all over again. "I was afraid you might see the things I was always so afraid you might see."

"I'm not oblivious to all the horrible things you've done, but I don't care about all of that." This time, I grabbed onto his face, to keep his gaze so that he wouldn't miss a single thing I said, either with my mouth or with my eyes. "I care about who you are now, and who you are is someone who acts to protect his family, and yeah, there have been some consequences we weren't prepared for, but Kol, you have become an amazing father. I never thought I would say that to you either."

He took a deep breath. "I'd never thought I'd hear it."

"But you are." I spread my palms across his cheeks, allowing my fingers to curl up the length of his face, as far as they would reach—just past his temple. "You do so much to protect Theia and Alastor, every day, and more than that, you opened your heart. You let them in, and more than them, Kol, you love me so unconditionally that you took a risk. You made me into an Original tribrid so nothing could happen to me, so we could both be there for our kids. You're not the man you once were, so whatever happened before . . . none of that matters now."

His eyes had closed somewhere in the middle of the things I said, but I knew it wasn't because he didn't want to see me say them, didn't want to hear the words. He was just so overwhelmed right now, and I got that entirely. "Please don't go anywhere, Darcy. I didn't realize how important you had become to me until you were gone, and if you left now, after things have become so perfect—"

"I will never leave you again." I let my hands fall from his face, let them fall down to grab onto his own, and I curled them around tightly enough that he understood what I was trying to do. "I promise that I will never leave your side again. I will never love anyone but you, Kol Mikaelson. You are my soulmate, the piece of me that has always been missing, and I've been missing from your life all these years, too, but this is my vow to you: I will love you unconditionally until the world stops spinning on its axis, until the Other Side ceases to exist, until whatever hides behind the Other Side crumbles. Until I cease to exist entirely, I will never stop loving you."

I watched his chest shake, heard the breaths trembling from his lips, but his eyes were so vibrant, so full of warmth so intense that it was impossible to process anything swirling around inside the golden depths. "You shouldn't say things like that, Darcy Gilbert."

Each word had been a breath, a struggled breath, but it was so sensual, bringing out a fire that didn't need to burn in me, not right now. "Why?"

"Because now is a very bad time to make love to you, but damn it, that's all I want to do."

I pressed my lips against his once more, but the moment the passion began to stir between us, between the connection we had made to one another physically, I ripped myself away, leaving him helpless and lost all over again. "Later."

Standing up off of him, I crossed the room, over to switch the music off. I hadn't bothered to listen to it, and damn it, I hoped beyond all hope that it had worked to keep people from listening in. I had just assumed that it did, that they couldn't hear us, but could they?

I really needed to find out if there was some sort of spell to give us the privacy I was looking for, but why would that spell exist?

Though I turned the music off, nothing inside of me wanted to go downstairs and face this. A part of me wanted to test the theory that if I stood here forever, the problem would just go away.

But it wouldn't. The problem would come using magic to break in the door, use magic to murder innocent children.

They had to go, far away from here.

"You ready to figure this out?"

* * *

 **A/N: Y'all, I was, like, bawling when I wrote this one, the next one, and I think through part of the next one. I can't remember, but I remember crying when writing this and the next one-the next one especially.**

 **My goodness.**

 **Anyways, I hope I convey those same emotions through you, or at least make you sad to see Darcy going through this. Emotions are the hardest part of writing, properly conveying them, but they're also some of the best parts of writing.**

 **Enough rambling.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	27. 26: Before Dawn

"Sometimes,  
The last thing I need is some sunlight,  
But recently I'm seeing this side  
Of 5 a.m. way too many nights.  
You can't blame me.  
I'm not fine  
Pretending that everything's alright."

 _You Can't Blame Me_ : MAKEOUT

* * *

It was still dark outside, but that was the best time for them to disappear. Hybrids had scouted the area around for miles, and without any traces of the Gemini, we could only assume they weren't watching yet. With any luck, they hadn't found our house just yet. Phoenix was a huge place, after all.

I did one final check on the blanket tucked into Alastor's car seat. Kol was securing Theia while everyone going with them finished packing up.

This was it. This was . . . this was the moment I never really thought might happen, but it was. It was happening, and there was nothing I could to stop it. Of course it was my say. It had been my choice, that pretty much everyone argued, but with Kol on my side, with Kol reminding them that the Gemini were in Phoenix, and we could keep them in Phoenix if they never knew that the twins weren't with us. If we managed to sneak them out of town, we could have the twins somewhere that the Gemini weren't.

After checking the straps of his car seat, ensuring they were perfectly secure without crushing his shoulders, I pulled myself out of the SUV. I wasn't saying goodbye just yet, but the twins would be the last people I would say goodbye to.

Most of my goodbyes had been said before we started loading the SUVs, before we even thought about bringing the twins outside, but there were some that had to be done just before.

Elena wrapped her arms around me the moment I stood up right, and I tried so hard not to cry. Really, I did, but I had already left once. I didn't get to say goodbye last time, and things were rough. It wasn't an ideal time to leave, and this was no different. Elena and I were better, but with the chaos of everything going on, I hadn't had a real chance to sit down with my twin sister and just talk, talk about the beautiful ways our lives had changed.

We both became vampires. We both figured out what and who we wanted in our lives, and damn it, I had had kids!

Everything was just so crazy. Finding a time to sit down, just the two of us—without vampires everywhere to listen in and overhear or judge . . . it just wasn't possible, and now she was leaving, going to help protect the twins while I stayed here and acted as a decoy for the Gemini.

"Thank you." I curled my face into her shoulder, doing my best to hold myself together. If anyone saw me crumble, they might mistake it for weakness, or maybe it was. Maybe crumbling proved Klaus right, that I couldn't handle eternity. "Thank you for looking out for the twins."

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Her voice cracked, broke, and the words were choked with tears she was fighting, too.

I shook my head. "It's absolutely not what I want, Elena, but it's what I have to do."

Damon stood behind Elena, waiting for me to let her go, and I knew that I had to. I wanted to hold onto her forever, to hold on and keep them all here, but they had to go, _before_ someone saw us and realized that we were getting the twins out of Phoenix.

I crushed him into me, maybe a bit too hard because I felt him squirm. I relented, but I didn't let him go.

"This is what you get."

His words confused me, enough that I ripped away to stare at him, to try and understand why he smiled, even with his eyes full of tears, his cheeks stained with them.

"For being the funny looking doppelgänger."

"Shut up." I buried myself back into his strong arms, into the soft cotton of the shirt he wore. "You're not making this any easier."

"I told you, though." He rested his head against the top of mine. "Your life was meant for more than what you once believed."

I took a deep breath, but my lungs shook the breaths as they came in, as they exhaled from within me. "I guess I can't really argue with that anymore."

He kissed the top of my head and let me go, gesturing back towards the SUV behind me. "I think there are two little ones that need your goodbyes more than I do."

"No." I closed my eyes. "Wait, yes. You're right."

"Darcy."

The sound of Kol's voice behind me, directly behind me, ripped my eyes open. I turned back towards him, and the tears weren't locked inside of his eyes, instead making trails down his cheeks.

My own came cascading down, faster than I was ready for, and I tried so hard to breathe, to just focus on the reason I was doing this to begin with. This was for the best. Their lives would be safer. I could sleep without tossing and turning, without wondering if the Gemini would find us in the middle of the night.

Maybe they would, but they wouldn't find the twins.

"Are you ready, love?" he whispered.

"Can I be?" I tried to swallow a lump closing up the airways of my throat, but it became more impossible the more it grew. "Can anyone ever be ready to do this?"

"No." He held a single hand up, towards me, and I watched more tears fall, watched his own pain consume him. "Shall we say goodbye?"

"I will never be ready to say goodbye." It was a common theme in our relationship, one that only made him cry more, but beneath all the pain, there was that one shimmer of light, the reminder that even though we didn't say goodbye, we were still together. We had overcome it all and ended up side-by-side, and that was where we would always be.

"Then we won't say goodbye," he whispered, but he reached out to simply grab onto my hand. I knew what he was doing, pulling me towards the SUV, and I watched him climb inside, to press his lips against Alastor's sleeping head, to climb over to do the same to Theia.

She stirred beneath his kiss, however. She stirred until her eyes open, and on instinct, her arms popped up, in the direction of her father. It was like any time she saw him, that was what she did, especially first thing in the morning.

"Shh." Kol came back to place his hand along her cheek, and his smile was broken, something she wouldn't see. "Listen, sweetheart. Mommy and Daddy are sending you away for a few days. Think of it like a vacation. You'll have your favorite people with you, and Mommy and Daddy will catch up with you later. Our family is too big to travel together, you see, but we will catch up with you. In the meantime, I want you to sleep. I want you to be a little brat, especially for your Aunt Bex, and Daddy will be there to spoil you as soon as I possibly can me."

She started to cry, to feel rejected because he wasn't taking her as he always did, but his thumbs rubbed soothing circles on her cheeks, one of her favorite things that her father did. Sometimes, when we couldn't get her to lay down for a nap, Kol would have to do it, to hold her and rub his fingers across her cheek, and she'd fall right asleep. It had to be Kol, too, which was the worst and best part.

In the future, there would be a lot of problems, mostly involving Theia's potential love life, but right now, all that mattered was that we did whatever we had to do to ensure that future was possible.

She fell asleep, almost immediately, but he hesitated, keeping his fingers against her skin until he was absolutely certain. With one final kiss on her forehead, he stood up and slid out the already opened door.

It made it hard to look at them, to remember how great their life had become. The first month of their life had been spent running, but we made it work. Then we came home to family, and we didn't have to run so much. They had begun growing, opening up and becoming happy, and we were sending them away from that.

But it was to ensure they got to continue being happy, that they weren't taken away. I had to remember that.

With one final kiss on each of the twins, gentle enough to ensure neither woke up, I closed the door and stepped back away from the SUV. Kol did the same on the other side, and I watched Elena climb into the SUV behind them, watched Damon jump in last.

Maisyn, Sutton, Ayven, and Oryn _had_ to go. Shea and Prisca had to stay here to help us spot the Gemini, but the hybrids sired to the twins couldn't physically be away from them. It was the first mention anyone had about breaking the sire bond, but they decided to do it later, once this storm had passed.

I was okay with that. They deserved free will just as much as the next person.

Alaric went with Elena, only after I insisted that he go. He wasn't going to, insisted that I needed someone here with me, but I reminded him that I had people here. Bonnie, Jeremy, and Caroline were staying behind, and I obviously had Kol.

He went on, and of course Damon and Stefan went. They stuck together, and they made the decision to go with the twins, both for Elena and for each other. Stefan had a chance to be away from the Mikaelsons, to explore something he felt for a person that had helped him see light and possible love beyond my sister, and Damon wasn't going to let him pass that up, not when he was so guilt ridden for taking Elena from him.

Finn and Sage chose to go with the twins as well, and Rebekah was, of course, going. She asked me what I thought best, and I told her that I thought she would be best suited defending the twins with the fire only she could defend them with. She hugged me for a long time and whispered that I better take of myself, that I better end this so we can all be family again.

There were cloaking spells of different kinds. The most basic, which Shea and Prisca said was the first spell that Gemini witches were taught, was the one that cloaked a person, made them disappear from sight, but then there was another one, one that took more power and had to be taught to only advance witches.

It was the spell to cloak a person's location, the same spell that had kept us hidden, the same spell that was put on the vessel that Kol had given me, the same spell that I had put on us almost constantly—but not anymore. The only ones under the cloaking spell were the ones leaving with the twins, and of course the twins themselves. People could still find them by walking up to them, by using non-magical sources, but finding them through magical means was impossible.

As far as the rest of us, we were no longer cloaked, and I only hoped that the Gemini didn't see right through it. Shea admitted that it was possible, but cloaking ourselves was senseless at this point. They would surely see that, too.

I stood on the other side of the SUVs, watching them drive away with pieces of me, with parts of my soul that I had never thought about being without. They drove away and out of the large, rounded driveway until all I could see was the person standing on the other side of them, the only person who was left to help me through this.

Jeremy was my brother. Shea and Prisca had become dear friends, and Bonnie and Caroline were sisters to me, but there was nothing they could do right now.

I was in Kol's arms in a second, and something about the comfort broke me down. Feeling his arms hold me against him, feeling the muscles tighten around me—a safe place to go, where all the problems around me could dissolve into nothing—I didn't care who saw me crumble anymore.

What shook through me was more than crying, reaching the outer boundaries of what might even be considered sobbing. I didn't care how horrible I looked, how stupid I might've sounded. None of that mattered, not in this moment.

They were gone. I had sent them away, and it had been the best thing for them.

How could I ever hope to be a good mother if the best place for my twins was somewhere else?

All I ever wanted, after I found out that I was pregnant, was for my child to have a good life, a safe life. I wanted them to grow up like a normal child, to have a life and family and know love.

The spirits weren't going to make that easy, but they wouldn't win. One way or another, I would prove triumphant. I would find a way to save my children and give them the life I wanted from that first moment, that moment I saw that little blue plus.

This was a kind of sobbing that I hadn't done in a long time, maybe ever. Facing what I had to do, after finding out that I was pregnant and that Esther knew, I couldn't cry like I wanted. I didn't know much about being pregnant, but I was scared I might cry too hard and hurt the baby, if that was even possible.

I would hold myself back, but I couldn't anymore. Everything was heightened from the way I was used to feeling things, so it was overpowering, too strong to even try and stifle.

Kol noticed my legs giving out, and he held me tighter. "Everything will be okay, Darcy. I promise."

That was the last thing he said to me before pulling me into his arms, before disappearing out of the dark of the early morning and up into our bedroom.

It didn't matter to me where we were. There were sobs resonating through me, and all I could do was cry into his chest, behind the comfort of our closed door.

"I know this isn't what you want to hear right now, love, but this was the absolute best thing for them right now."

The sobs choked through my throat, clenching inside my chest, but I tore myself from his chest, forced myself to look up at him. I didn't care how horrible my crying made me look, for the first time in my life. Kol would love me anyways, surely.

His hand moved to hold my face, and the very sight of me this way had his own tears falling back down. It was the very definition of love, after all. When someone's happiness is your happiness, but everyone seems to forget the other part—when someone's pain is your pain.

"How can I . . . be a good mother if the best thing for them is for them to be away from me?" I choked, through desperate pants of air.

His other hand moved to hold my face, to force my gaze to remain on him. "Because you can do the best thing for them, no matter how hard it is for you, no matter how much it hurts."

The tears had become relentless, falling without mercy, but hearing Kol's words somehow made it worse. I didn't realize anything was being held back until I felt them fall faster, until I felt the tears falling onto the skin of my legs, until they touched along the back of my hand after cascading past my face.

Somehow, a knock on the other side of our door stopped them. With everything going on, I didn't think anything could stop the tears, but the knock did. It was softer than Klaus would've bothered with, and I didn't imagine Caroline had any reason to come knocking right now, nor Bonnie and Jeremy.

That only left one of the Gemini twins, and I imagined Shea would've knocked a bit more forcefully.

I was by the door before Kol's grip could tighten on me to stop me, and I was wiping the tears away at the same time one hand reached to pull our door open. Prisca stood in the hallway outside the door, with her own face tear stained while her bright eyes were swollen and puffy.

Of course I wasn't the only one suffering. Everyone here was hurting, losing someone they loved—if they hadn't already. Caroline loved the twins, and our best friend, our sister, was leaving to protect them, but she had given up her mom for this. Bonnie had given up her humanity, and Jeremy his, too, and he had to lose a sister, again.

Shea and Prisca were losing the people they cared about the absolute most, besides one another, and I absolutely hated taking anything more from anyone. It just had to be done.

"I didn't wanna interrupt," she whispered, but she used the back of her palms to wipe away her stray tears.

I swallowed past the lump that had closed my throat and shook my head. "No, it's okay. What's up?"

"Klaus is restless downstairs," she mumbled. "He wants to figure out what to do now."

Kol scoffed from the bed but didn't move, simply glared up at the ceiling. "Tell him to bite me."

Prisca's eyes rounded. "Uh . . . I'd rather not."

"Not everyone is safe from his wrath," I reminded him softly, hoping like _hell_ he wasn't listening—but he probably was because he was an ass, despite the humanity inside of him. "Let's just go downstairs and get this over with."

He groaned but rolled off the bed anyways, used his vampire speed to get across the room and behind me almost immediately. "Okay. Whatever you'd like, love."

Prisca didn't say anything, only gave the two of us a small smile before disappearing, most likely to wherever Klaus was waiting for us. I didn't know why he was so desperate to get started now, but I wasn't gonna protest and piss him off, no matter how much I wanted to. Right now, I couldn't handle anymore emotional turmoil, and even a build up of rage was dangerous.

Kol's head ducked down next to mine, leaning over so that the skin of his face touched along the side of my own, and his arms snaked around my waist. "I'm right here, Darcy. Don't forget that."

"I won't."

His hands fell by my side, to grab onto one of mine, and the two of us stepped out of our room, down the stairs and into the living room—where Klaus was waiting, as I imagined he would be.

He wasn't alone, instead surrounded by a few of his own hybrids. It had been a long time since I had seen this side of him, the side that had hardened his eyes. When he found out that Kol had made me an Original vampire, he was angry, but it didn't compare to what I saw in him now.

This wasn't anger. This was something lethal, something deadly. He had never been this fired up and ready to kill before, but he was now, as his darkened eyes stared between the three hybrids surrounding him.

"You three, secure the perimeter. If you see anyone approach, anyone who looks even remotely suspicious, bring them to me at once. Report back to me every hour. Go."

That was all he had to say. The men jumped to action, heading out the door to go wherever he had already told them to go, and that left him able to stare at Kol and me, to give us the same lethal stare.

"What do you plan to do now?"

My face furrowed. "I-I don't know. I haven't gotten that far. I've been trying to get past the part where I sent my kids away for their own good."

The muscles of his body tensed with the reminder of what I had done, the darkness taking over his expression further. "That much is true."

"If you didn't want to stay, you didn't have to," I reminded him. "There was room for one more in the SUV."

"And leave you to fend for yourself?" He scoffed. "You wouldn't know the first thing about surviving."

It wasn't the first time that Klaus had said something like this to me. He had been referring to the fact that I would make a horrible vampire, that my heart would get me killed because I couldn't make the choice for someone to die.

Was that this was? His way of implying that whatever lied ahead was death?

"What are you saying?" I folded my arms over my chest and did my best to wipe my face clean of any emotion. "Are you saying we have to kill people?"

A smile pulled onto his lips, but it wasn't friendly, or anything even remotely good. "The fact that you have to ask proves me right."

"You don't have to kill people to survive!" I exclaimed. "Why is that so hard for you to believe?"

He stepped closer to me, but I wasn't afraid of him. I never had been, not like I was supposed to be. Before, Klaus never wanted me to die because he didn't think Elena was going to make it out alive, and he was right about that. He called me the doppelgänger who had a shot of living a full human life.

He had no idea that I was the one doppelgänger who absolutely didn't want the human life thing, nor did he know what lied on the path ahead. He had no idea that our lives would become intertwined through love, the love I had for his brother, the love that created twins that brought the family together in a way Kol still struggled to wrap his head around.

Now, there was absolutely nothing he could do to me, yet his threatening stare should've scared me into submission—but it never did, and it definitely wouldn't start now, no matter how broken I was on the inside.

"Maybe you've deluded yourself this long, but there is an entire coven of witches coming for your children," he snapped. "Are you going to lie back and let them take them?"

My eyes rounded. "No!"

"Then they have to die."

" _No_." I didn't know when Shea and Prisca had joined us in the living room, but it didn't matter. Shea stood closest to Klaus, with fierceness in her eyes that showed the same kind of fearlessness that I had always shown to him.

Prisca was absolutely afraid of him, but I wasn't. I never would be, and it seemed that Shea wouldn't either.

"I didn't ask." Klaus turned himself towards her without hesitation. "If you have a problem with it, you should go elsewhere because all that matters in this house is keeping the twins safe."

There was a difference in being fearless and knowing when to back down, and right now, there was nothing else Shea could say, nothing she could do. It was suddenly made very clear that Klaus was going to take this places none of us wanted to go, and she had to come to terms with that or find a way to stand against him.

She grabbed Prisca by the hand and disappeared, moving at a speed that didn't allow me to catch their eye. Back when this all started, they asked me to promise that nothing would happen to the Gemini, and I had because there was no plan in my mind that ended someone's life, especially an entire coven of witches—hundreds of people's lives.

I scoffed and took a step down the stairs, though Kol grabbed onto my arm to pull me back. "Will you back off?"

Klaus turned to me without the lethality from before, but instead a carefree and almost glib expression that rubbed the ends of my nerves together. "You're emotionally distraught right now. You can't think clearly. I, however, am much more in control of these heightened emotions, and I can see the very clear path that lies ahead." His eyes darted past me, towards his brother that had stood silent for the entirety of this conversation. "What do you think of all of this, brother? Do you believe in the madness of saving lives?"

I turned back to see Kol just in time to watch him disappear. It was strange, and I knew it shouldn't have hurt, but it _did_. He had just promised me that he was right beside me, yet he disappeared when Klaus said something to him?

I didn't let it get to me just yet, instead turned back to Klaus and began taking steady breaths. He didn't give me a chance to retort something, to stick up for the Gemini any further.

"You can sit around and do nothing if you'd like," he said, and his lips pressed. "But I won't. I will ensure the twins are safe, whatever it takes—even if it means doing things without you on my side. I will stand against you if I must, but in the end, the twins will live their lives."

I didn't have anything to say to that, as the confusion of Kol's disappearance was getting the better of me, so I just ran up to the room, disappearing the same way he had.

What I found was a man standing by the window, staring out at the rising sun.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry if the ending sucks, but there was a lot coming up in the next chapter as well. It seemed like a decent place to end this one.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	28. 27: Weakness and Strength

"The best of intentions,  
I lay at your feet,  
And I need you to see past the worst part of me.  
I'm tired of taking my aim  
When I keep on missing.  
There's gotta be a better way,  
Gotta be a better way.  
And every little word I say  
Keeps getting twisted,  
Or coming out wrong, so baby hold on.  
I'm tryin' to hit the mark but I'm shooting with broken arrows."

 _Broken Arrows_ : Daughtry

* * *

We were a team. We had both, through different ways, become bound to one another, lost our free will to the other, and we fought through whatever we had to do to ensure the other got their free will back.

Now, we both had free will, and we could be the team that we needed to be . . . but Kol was running away, leaving me behind to fend for myself during one of the hardest mornings I might ever have to face.

"What was that?" Right now, without understanding, I tried really hard to figure out why he might've left. I tried to see things from his perspective, but I could find no reason to walk away like that.

He didn't turn, only took a shaky breath. "That was me not knowing what to do."

"What are you talking about?" I closed the door behind me, though the moment it clicked, I was only reminded that it didn't matter. Klaus could hear us anyways. There wasn't a person in the house who couldn't hear us.

"Because I want to believe you." He turned back to face me now, and there was a strong absence of warmth in his stare. "I want to believe that we don't have to kill the Gemini to do this, but I know that we do. I'm letting my love for you blind me to the things I've learned over a thousand years, give or take the centuries I lay daggered."

"What?"

"I'm an idiot, Darcy," he insisted, but I watched the cold stare begin to melt, watched the things he was fighting so hard to hold back right now breaking through his defenses. "Here lately, I've always made the wrong choices, and I was wrong to believe that love is anything but a weakness."

I could justify a lot of things right now. We had just sent our kids away indefinitely for their own good, and the road ahead was just as treacherous as the journey we were on now. Things were tough, so of course he struggled to see anything but death for the Gemini. They were taking away his first piece of happiness, so why wouldn't he want to kill them when it was all he knew?

But I couldn't find any reason for him to say that.

Tears fell down my face before I even realized they had formed in my eyes, and Kol was in front of me in a second, with his hands moving to hold my face. "Please don't misunderstand what I said, love. I love you, and so what if it makes me weak? I'm happy—or I will be when this is all over and I can learn to make the proper choices again."

With a bit of clarity, it made sense. He wasn't implying that this was all a mistake, that he wanted out of the relationship or anything like that. All he was saying was that he still didn't believe love was a strength.

I would show him, damn it, if it was the last thing I did.

I could feel my lips curling up, towards a smile, and Kol's face softened, the warmth completely back in the melted chocolate of his eyes. Still, his lips pressed, and a line formed between his brows. "What on earth is there to smile about right now, love?"

I put my hands on his face and made my smile wider. "We're alive. We're here. We have forever." Seeing tears prick his own eyes, seeing him melt so easily despite the years of experience he had building walls around himself, it was beautiful, one of the most vulnerable things I had seen from him. "You're not stupid, Kol. I actually demand that you take that back, by the way. Love has proven more than once to be my greatest strength."

"I've made so many bad choices _because_ of love," he disagreed, but with my hands still on his face, he had a really hard time arguing with me. "I bound myself to you, only moments before you were found."

"The timing was a bit bad, yes," I allowed. "And I absolutely forbid you from ever doing that again."

Though he smiled, one hand came to touch the skin of my cheek. "I made you an Original so no one could hurt you, but they found us because I did that."

"Because you didn't want me to die." With a roll of my eyes, I used a bit of magic to pin him back into the wall, though I pinned him a bit harder than I actually intended. His body slammed into the wall, knocking off the picture that had once hung there, but I didn't give him a chance to move away. I used my arms to pin him, used my much smaller body to hold him in place—as if he would've moved anyways.

Though he was pinned back, his muscles relaxed into me, and his breaths tightened. There was fire in his eyes, burning through every piece of him, but I didn't let my skin touch his, mostly because I knew that now wasn't the time to have sex. It didn't matter how much I wanted to do so. There was stuff we had to discuss and figure out.

His tongue touched the skin of his lips, his eyes visibly grazing across my body. "We can't just fuck this problem away, Darcy."

I pressed my hand against his chest. "Mmm. I love the idea of trying, but I'm not undressing you yet. Just making you look at me."

"I've looked at nothing but you from the moment you pulled the dagger from my chest."

My mind felt like it had suddenly exploded, but it was the rush of everything going on inside that gave me that sensation. First thing I could figure out was how sweet what he said was, that it was beautiful. Since he had opened his eyes and saw me staring back at him . . . everything in his life had been done for me, to bring me into his life, to _find_ me.

But then the second thing . . . the _dagger_ . . . .

I left him hanging, leaving the room and searching through the house until I found Bonnie. She was in the kitchen starting up breakfast, whereas Jeremy sat at the island, two fingers pressed into his eyes to try and rub some of the exhaustion away.

At the sight of me, Bonnie's eyes widened. "Darcy?"

"Can I be daggered?" I asked. "The daggers have to be put into the white oak ash to actually dagger an Original, but if we put Kol's blood on the end of a dagger, will it work?"

Her brow scrunched, but her eyes remained rounded. "I don't know. Even though you haven't triggered your werewolf curse, you _are_ still a werewolf."

"When Klaus stabbed me with it the other day, I didn't heal quickly," I said. "I didn't heal like a werewolf should when stabbed with silver. Besides that, what if we made one of them gold?"

"Excuse me?" I hadn't even realized that others had come into the kitchen at the sound of my frantic words, but Klaus wasn't going to pretend he wasn't enraged by the reminder of what Kol had been working on the last time he daggered him. The fact that I knew it was possible must've made him aware that Kol had been talking about it at one point—but it didn't matter. It was in the past, just like everything he had done.

"Relax." I glared over at him. "I don't plan to use it on you. I wanna use it on me."

Kol's eyes were wide when he appeared in front of me. "Okay, _what_? Can you please explain this to me, love?"

"We can dagger me," I said, and I put my hands on his shoulders, an attempt to calm him down. "We can set a trap. If I'm daggered, it may lure the Gemini in, to ensure that I remain that way or die. We can get rid of the problem!"

No one said anything, with the arrival of the Gemini twins and Elijah. He came at the sound of my talk of a dagger, a golden dagger, but the twins didn't come in because of the dagger. They came for another part of our conversation, and they were empty of all emotion except anger, expect everything they absolutely deserved to have a chance to feel with everything that we were talking about.

Klaus didn't care who had to die; he was gonna kill the entire Gemini coven without blinking if that was what it took.

"Do you remember what you promised us when we made the choice to go with you?" Shea asked, and her lips pressed into a thin line. "You promised that you wouldn't make the choice to kill the Gemini."

"You know that I don't wanna kill anyone," I insisted. "Please, Shea, if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears. Believe me."

Prisca shook her head. "You don't understand. It's not just our attachment to our families. You _can't_ kill the Gemini, especially the leader."

Kol wasn't standing back anymore, wasn't letting me do this on my own, and though he still wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do, he spoke up. "He's not that powerful, is he?"

"It's not that!" Prisca insisted, but her eyes were locked on me. "You can't kill the leader of the Gemini because if he dies, everyone in the coven dies."

It hit me then, what they were saying without saying. They had mentioned it before, when we were first starting our crazy journey together, but until they said it again now, I had completely forgotten.

The people of the Gemini coven were powerful, but more than that, they were completely linked in life. If their leader died for any reason, without a new set of twins merging to take over as leader of the coven, the coven would cease to exist.

I was dead, so I was no longer connected to that life link, but the twins _were_. Everyone who had come from the twins' bloodline, all their hybrids, Prisca, and Shea . . . they were all dead if we killed the leader of the Gemini.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "So a few hundred people die. We don't exactly care, if I didn't make that clear enough before."

My eyes darted up to his, to stare as evenly as I could, but the fear was making me cold, solidifying my veins. "You should because that includes the twins."

"How so?" Elijah asked, stepping into the conversation with a level head, with an open mind to any idea, unlike Klaus who saw nothing but death to anyone who threatened the twins.

"Darcy's father was a Gemini," Prisca said, and I watched understanding flash across the eyes of each Original. "It's where her siphoning came from, the Gemini. Therefore, the twins are also Gemini. If the leader dies, so do the twins."

"We can't let that happen," I said, before anyone could say anything more. "I can't believe I forgot . . . but what if-what if he decides to kill himself to kill them?"

"He won't." Shea gave me a soft smile, though there wasn't much light in it at all. "Though they don't want your twins to exist, the coven comes before all else, even family most times. He wouldn't kill off the coven because of your twins, or you for that matter."

That was the only comfort I could find in that moment, but it wasn't much. She was right about that. From all the stories I had heard, the Gemini _did_ put the coven before all else. It was why Prisca and Maisyn weren't allowed to be together, at least not for life. Prisca was supposed to marry a man and have children, and she was expected to remain faithful. It didn't matter what she wanted with her life.

Coven before all else, even family.

I sat down in the chairs at the small dining table in the far corner of the kitchen, letting the weight of it all crush me for the moment. I let it take over and buried my face in my hands, buried myself away from it all and simply let it all consume me.

The Gemini wouldn't die to kill the twins, but they would do whatever else it took. It didn't matter that the twins were, by default, part of the coven. They wanted them to die, no matter how horrible it was to kill _infants_.

This was a crazy mess we had somehow found ourselves in, but it was our mess, the mess that came from every choice we had made along the way, good or bad, right or wrong.

When I made the decision to sleep with Kol on our first date, I thought the worst consequence would be someone calling me easy. I had absolutely no way of knowing this could've happened, and if I had known . . . I wouldn't have changed it, but maybe I could've been better prepared.

Maybe I could've found a way to save them.

* * *

 **A/N: Completely unrelated to this chapter, but I was typing up some ideas for part three, and I realized that there was a chapter I really needed to include into this story, so there are now 46 chapters instead of 45.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	29. 28: Eternity of Selfish Moments

"Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him.  
Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted . . .  
. . . I see nothing better, I keep him forever,  
Like a vendetta.

I see how this is gonna go.  
Touch me and you'll never be alone.  
Island breeze and lights down low.  
No one has to know.

In the middle of the night, in my dreams,  
You should see the things we do, baby.  
In the middle of the night, in my dreams,  
I know I'm gonna be with you,  
So I take my time.  
Are you ready for it?"

 _. . . Ready For It?_ : Taylor Swift

* * *

We weren't supposed to talk about the twins, weren't supposed to wonder where they might be, but I _did_ wonder. As I sat in the comfort of the living room, tucked into one of the cozy couches facing the wall of windows to watch the sun fall closer to setting—still at least an hour or so away—all I could think about was how far they could've gotten.

They didn't go anywhere near Portland, so I knew they didn't travel north. California was too close as well, so they had to be headed somewhere eastern—but definitely not Mystic Falls. Maine was a random place, so maybe they were headed to Maine.

What was even in Maine?

I wasn't alone on the couch. Well, I _was_ , but I had the camera I had brought along with me. It was in my hands now, and I had brought it to take pictures of the land outside the windows.

As much as I hated the desert, it was pretty with the sun in just the right place.

Taking pictures went to looking at pictures, and suddenly, I was going back through the beginning. Two months in the grand scheme of it all wasn't that long, but so much had happened. So many moments had been documented, especially when we came back home and united the twins with their family.

I could find comfort in the fact that they were with family now, that they were safe. With their hybrids, plus the devoted family who loved them more than I imagined Theia and Alastor would ever really know, I knew they were safe. The more the day went on, the more I came to terms with what I had decided.

As painful as it was, it was absolutely what was best for them, to ensure that we had an eternity to make those memories. One day, they would have the choice to become vampires, and all of this would be over. In the meantime, we were going to ensure we took every step necessary to get them to that point.

Two months wasn't a long time, but they had changed so much. Bringing them home to their family had been the absolute best thing for them. There was stability, even if it wasn't the stability that I had initially wanted.

They had family. Uncles, aunts . . . they were surrounded with so much love, even from Stefan. They were a part of his life, a part he didn't think he'd get to experience as a vampire. Vampires never got to experience children, ageing, seeing what happened in life when people grew old. This was new for everyone here, even the newly turned vampires.

It was the hope we all needed in life, when death and darkness surrounded us so tightly that life seemed like it was constantly night. Theia and Alastor were that morning light.

Seriously, I couldn't have picked better names.

Kol came to sit beside me suddenly, taking the camera from my hands, and I looked at him with a smirk.

His eyebrows rose, but he only barely glanced away from the camera in his hands. "What is that look for? It's hot, but what's it for?"

I bit down on my bottom lip to suppress my smile, but he probably saw it in my eyes anyways. "I should get a medal for how well I named our kids."

"Why is that?" He leaned over to press his lips against the side of my head, but his eyes remained on the camera. He pressed the button through each picture, the same way that I had done at least once.

"Alastor, the Greek god of avenging familial misdeeds—which had been entirely intentional—but Theia . . . I don't know." I adjusted my position a bit, leaning more into his arm draped across the back of the couch. "I always thought our kids would be a light in the middle of the dark, but they really are. They're the shining light in our lives, so Theia . . . it fits."

"That is true," he murmured. "She is—"

"Okay, you don't have to so noticeably play favorites," I cut him off, before he could finish whatever he had planned to say.

His eyebrows rose, but his lips were twisting, fighting back a smirk. "Of course I don't have a favorite."

"Liar."

"You know, I am very fond of my son," he disagreed, and he leaned forward a bit, turning himself closer to me. "He is quite handsome, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the words. My _son_ . . . and daughter. I have children."

"Just think." I snatched the camera back from his hands and began searching, for a picture in particular—towards the front. It was the first picture I had ever taken of either of them, the day they were born, and the last time Kol had seen it, he had to look away. It really got to him, but that wasn't why I was going back to it. "If Shea and Prisca hadn't known the pregnancy speed up spell—"

"I'm almost certain that's not what it's called," he said, but he smiled anyways, more in his eyes than anywhere else.

"I would still only be somewhere between eighteen and nineteen weeks pregnant," I finished. Though I ignored him with my words, I absolutely couldn't ignore him entirely, and I reached up to touch his lips, to touch the warmth on his face that was sometimes unreal.

Kol was a ruthless Original vampire, the most blood crazed of them all, yet he was warm. He was in love, and he was a _father_ , a damn good one at that. No, he didn't know everything about how to be a good father, but he tried, and above all else, he loved his children, more than himself.

When I pulled the dagger out of his chest, I had absolutely no idea what lay ahead for me, but I would do it all over again—again and again and again. I wouldn't change a moment of it because changing any of it might mean that something else changed, and I didn't want anything to change.

One day, things would be happy. We would be the happy family I wanted to be, safe from the Gemini and . . . whatever else lay ahead.

"I bet you were adorable with your baby bump."

I snorted. "Hardly."

"Well, this is coming from the woman who thinks she is anything less than perfect, so I don't believe you at all." He leaned back a bit, looking towards somewhere in the distance. "I'll have to ask Shea later."

"I think she has a picture." My nose curled. "Throughout most of the pregnancy, I was pretty sick because my body was going through so much, so most days, I looked like hell, but there was this one day, before I looked like someone stuck an air pump into my stomach and went a little overboard. I let her take the only maternity picture there will ever be."

His eyebrows rose. "Why haven't I seen this?"

"You never asked." I glanced at the camera in my hands. "It was the day I decided to go get this, though, because I realized that there would be memories that I'd want to show you later."

He leaned forward a bit, only so that he could place one hand on my cheek, and his eyes held onto mine. The smile was no longer held back from his lips, and I could feel him relaxing into me, the warmth of his love for me melting him. "I would absolutely love to see that picture."

"I'm sure she'll show you if you ask." I flipped off the camera and leaned forward, to set it on the coffee table in front of us.

Kol's hands moved over to grab onto mine, since they were now empty, and my eyes darted to his. Beyond the warmth was something brighter, a fire that told a steamy story that I had seen earlier today, when I used magic to pin him against the wall.

"Would you like to be selfish for a bit, love?"

Warmth flushed through me, lingering underneath the skin of my cheeks but making a blazing trail through my body, pooling between my legs. After everything went down, after my family found out he was a vampire at all, and then once Klaus started watching me almost non-stop to search for the vampire who had killed his hybrids, selfish moments became all we had.

They weren't anymore, but the very idea of another one . . . .

"We can't," I murmured, but I didn't know if _I_ believed what I was saying. I didn't imagine that he did. "Too much is happening. Elijah and the Gemini twins are in the library as we speak, looking for answers to our problems."

He leaned himself closer, close enough that I could feel his chest as it rose and fall with large but steady breaths. "That's why it's called being selfish."

I didn't get a chance to respond because his lips were suddenly on mine, holding me . . . captivating me— _dominating_ me. There was such fire in his movements, and I forgot how to breathe.

I had to pull myself away before I got too lost in the kiss, and I was only able to do so by falling over and using vampire speed to duck away from him. I didn't stay away from him long, instead ended up right back beside him, but I had to move in order to get away from the strength of his kiss.

"You know that I could seriously lock us away for days and be quite content, but there's so much to do," I insisted, and I grabbed onto his hands, before he could use them to pin me back somehow. "Why does it have to be now?"

"Because I love you, Darcy, and I don't know what's going to happen," he said, and though his words were soft, his desires hadn't even remotely died. The flames still consumed him, burned so vibrantly inside of his eyes that it warmed the outside of my skin, melted away any protests I had properly formed. "I don't know what we're about to have to do, and—hang on. Why do I have to have a reason to want to make love to you?"

I let out a breath of a laugh. "You don't, but you have to convince me to be selfish."

With my hands no longer on his, he was able to grab onto me and pull me into his lap, to dig his fingers into my hips through the fabric of my dress. His lips attached themselves to me as well, though they moved along the curve of my neck.

"Because you love me," he breathed, but his tongue flicked across the skin, left a trail down until he reached the dimple in my collar bone. It was so hot, and all I could do was let it shake through my body and moisten the hottest part of me. His hands were prepared for me to squirm in his grip, but he held me against him, pressed me into his pelvis, where his own desires were becoming as obvious as mine were. "Because there is no greater feeling than becoming one with me."

"Mmm. Someone's confident in himself."

"Of course." His hands removed themselves from my hips, barely. Instead, they moved to the edge of my dress and slipped beneath the skirt, sliding up my bare thighs until his fingers found the lace fabric of my panties. "I also happen to know which places you like to be touched most, where you prefer my lips to be."

My lips grabbed onto his, the rush of his hands so close to the parts of me that longed to be touched by him, and he got into the kiss—but that didn't stop him from pressing his fingers against me, through the sodden panties.

I tried not to moan with his touch, but I seriously couldn't help it. Instead of doing it out-loud, I moaned into his mouth but then forced my lips away. "Klaus would kill us."

His fingers continued pressing against me, moving further into the folds. "He won't even notice. He's distracted by Caroline for the moment." I pulled away from him, my eyes rounding, but he didn't let it ruin the moment. "Not like that, but she captivates him."

"Mmm." I took a chance and kissed him, let myself be consumed with this feeling that had only gotten better since becoming a vampire. I didn't think it was even possible, but I had been proven wrong in the best of ways. In the back of my mind, it was all I wanted to do—aside from the curse scratching at me to kill someone—so to have a chance to do it was an offer I absolutely couldn't turn down.

My lips had only barely touched his before he adjusted our position, throwing me back onto the couch so he could begin devouring every piece of exposed skin. His hand remained beneath my skirt, pressing against me, and it became very clear that he had absolutely no shame.

I ripped my lips from his. "My one demand? We do this in our room, and turn on the music so it kinda sounds like we tried to hide it."

The annoyed scowl he gave me was very much overpowered by the desire to have me, so it was barely even believable when he looked at me. "Fine."

He leaned down to scoop me up off the couch, pulling me into his arms the same way he had my last night as a human. I was never going to protest being held this way, especially as he carried me towards the bed to have his way with me.

I expected him to run up the stairs, to get us into our room as quickly as he possibly could, but he didn't move with the urgency I expected. Each step was controlled, taken at a human pace, even after we stepped through the door of our room.

He laid me on the bed as if I was delicate, as if I was a valued treasure that had to be handled with care, but I _wasn't_ , damn it. I watched him walk over to the stereo and turn on the music, so while he did that, I used magic to shut and lock the door.

His head snapped back towards me, and his lips curled into a smirk. "Impatient, are we?"

There were a lot of responses I could've come up with to what he said, and there were some that he probably expected, from the gentle person that I was.

I _wasn't_ that person anymore, and it was time it showed somewhere besides just in the way that I dressed.

With the best seductive smile I could give him, I lifted myself up to my knees, and using a bit of magic, I pulled him towards me, to the edge of the bed I was kneeled at. It put him close enough that I could rip his shirt over his head, and he was _not_ going to stop me.

He did, however, take a bit of control of the situation and pushed me back onto the bed. The gentle, tender touch was gone, and he all but ripped the dress I wore over my head.

Things were moving at the speed I wanted to, at the intensity and fierceness that I wanted them to. Sex had been held back for so long because Kol was so scared he might break me, but he didn't have to hold back anymore. I wasn't so easily broken.

I didn't want him to hold back from me, even if he was trying to be sweet and loving. I didn't need him to gently make love to me to show me that he loved me. Every single thing he had done since I pulled the dagger out of his chest proved that.

He had spent centuries feeding and killing without second thought, but he comes out of a centuries long slumber and _doesn't_ kill me? How else can that be explained except through some kind of love that had already begun to form?

His teeth scraped along my skin, his grazing across my flesh as if it was a marvelous feast, but his eyes were locked on me, staring right into my own as he moved to devour me in the best of ways.

"I love every beautiful and perfect piece of your body."

I squeezed my eyes shut and let my head roll back into the pillows. "Damn it, Kol."

"What is it?" he breathed, the warmth of his breath caressing the skin inside my thigh.

"Please just take me."

I felt his lips curl into a smirk against my thigh, felt his muscles shift my way, but he didn't shift, didn't begin removing any other piece of clothing just yet.

So suddenly, my hands were pinned above my body, with his own pressing into me and absolutely holding me in place. The dominating animal was back in his eyes, the darker parts of himself that I wasn't entirely sure he liked revisiting—but hot damn, _I_ did.

"I will take you," he growled so suddenly, and the words alone had my body squirming into him. "Today, tomorrow, and every day for the rest of our endless eternity because you, Darcy Gilbert, are _mine_."

 _Oh yes I am._

His lips dove back into my flesh, moved against me again while one hand fell from mine, to reach back and unhook my bra, and though every part of me was ready for this, though I was completely into every single moment, in the back of my mind, all I could do was revel in how lucky I really was.

This was what I got to live in forever.


	30. 29: The Final Solution

"Loving you was young, and wild, and free.  
Loving you was cool, and hot, and sweet.  
Loving you was sunshine, safe and sound,  
A steady place to let down my defenses,  
But loving you had consequences."

 _Consequences_ : Camila Cabello

* * *

Time with Kol was endless, but it also didn't exist. Any time we were together, especially alone together, I lost all track of time and the world around me. Kol was the same way, and I sometimes wondered if anyone else had ever done that to him.

I didn't imagine anyone could except a soulmate, except a love that was eternal.

Though we were lost in time for a little while, we couldn't be lost forever, and we found a way to remember that. We found a way to untangle and head downstairs, to join forces with the ones already diligently searching for answers to save our children.

Oh God. We were so horribly selfish.

There was no way I could've prepared for what I walked downstairs to, what we came into the living room and found. Elijah held a grimoire in his hands, one that he seemed to be studying intently despite the tears in the eyes of the Gemini twins.

Shea was only teary eyed, whereas Prisca was struggling to hold back sobs. I didn't know what was happening, what they were so upset about, but I felt my heart drop from my chest, all the way down to the heels of my feet.

"W-What's wrong?" My hand fell from Kol's, only so I could go over to kneel in front of Prisca, to force her to look at me. "What's going on?"

Prisca opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. I didn't know what exactly she was trying to say, but I knew that it was hard, whatever it was.

Shea, however, had seemingly come to terms with whatever had them both so upset, enough that she could answer me. "Darcy . . . we have to kill the Gemini."

"What?" My eyebrows furrowed. "We already established that we can't."

"But we have to," she insisted. "There's no other way. They won't stop, and how long will it be before we trip up? Before they realize we don't have the twins? We can't run forever. You said that yourself."

"There has to be another way," I disagreed. "What about a prison world? If we send them all to one, it won't be so bad, right?"

"Except we _can't_." She didn't let go of Prisca, but she lifted her head off of her sister's. "We don't have Bennett blood."

"Bonnie—"

"Is a vampire," she cut me off, shaking her head slowly. Though she was talking with me, her hand hadn't stopped rubbing along Prisca's arm. "It wouldn't work. It has to be the blood of a Bennett witch. Besides that, we don't have the power to make an ascendant. We need a Bennett witch and a Gemini witch, a powerful one."

Bonnie came into the room, obviously overhearing all the talk of Bennett witches, and her brow scrunched. "I know a Bennett witch who is still alive. If Darcy can make the ascendant, or whatever, I can get the Bennett witch to come do whatever is necessary."

"We are _not_ involving any other witches into our plans," Klaus spoke up, making his own grand entrance into the room with dark fire in his eyes as he peered at Bonnie, something that she actually shirked back away from a bit. "Darcy gets a pass because she's the black sheep of witches who they all hate anyways, especially now that she's such an abomination."

"Cute." I folded my arms over my chest and took a deep breath. "Do you have a better idea, though? Because quite frankly, this is the best one we've got."

He ripped his glare from Bonnie to look at me, but something was softer, something I couldn't really explain. It was a piece of the humanity that I had seen in him, and it showed in the small smile. Most of it was masked by the glibness inside of his voice, but I could see the smallest sliver as he stared at me.

"Not yet, but I'm working on it."

Elijah suddenly moved his head from the grimoire that he was looking at, and a large smile that was unlike Elijah pulled across his face. He was polite, and he was the most noble of the Mikaelsons, but he didn't smile all that much, at least not vibrantly.

Theia and Alastor had changed that. They were the only ones that I had seen who could make him smile this way effortlessly.

"I found it." His eyes found me, directing his excitement towards me. "I didn't want to say anything until I found it again, but I remembered something about a spell I found when we were looking through all the grimoires in our search for you."

"What spell?"

He gestured to the grimoire. "It's a spell to link the life of someone to another, and it must be similar to what the Gemini did all those years ago when their life became linked with their leader's."

My brow furrowed. "What are you saying? Do you think that I can siphon that link if it's just a spell?"

"I don't know if that would work," he admitted. "What I'm saying is that we can link the life of the twins to someone else, someone not connected to the Gemini's life, and they can live, long enough to grow older and become vampires themselves."

"So we're back onto the 'kill the Gemini' ship then? No one will oppose?" Klaus asked, but his eyes were locked on Prisca and Shea, as if he was waiting for some more protests.

"Our sister is a Gemini," Shea whispered. "Most of them don't feel like family, but she did at one time."

I folded my arms over my chest. "Maybe you can talk to her? Maybe she'd choose becoming a vampire over dying, right?"

"She would rather die," Shea disagreed.

"But it's worth a shot," Prisca added on, though she was staring past me, towards the angry Original hybrid if I had to guess.

"This spell requires life to be taken," Elijah continued to explain, when everyone seemed to be on board with this plan fully, whatever the cost. "To connect the twins to someone's life, it will have to drain the life of that person."

"So a vampire then?" I asked.

He shook his head. "A vampire's life force would drain. They can die fairly easily. It has to be someone more eternal, someone who can't just die by conventional means."

"Like me?"

Kol scoffed. "What? Are you out of your mind? No. They need their mother when this is all over. Let me do it. Maybe this is the redemption I've been searching for."

"No!" I turned back to face him, my eyes widened. "If they need me, they need their dad, too! You're the only one who can get Theia to sleep sometimes!"

"I don't think that's gonna work anyways, even if we were all on board with Kol being the one we bound their lives to," Bonnie spoke up, giving me the much needed reminder that Kol and I weren't alone, that this was something we were discussing with everyone left in Phoenix pretty much.

"Why?" Kol asked. "Why wouldn't it work? It has to be an Original, right?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that if we dagger _you_ , Darcy will go down with you."

It was something I hadn't actually thought much about, the fact that I was bound to Kol's life, but it sort of made sense, at least a little bit. I didn't know why it might be that literal, but it was magic. Magic had loopholes, but in many ways, it was very literal.

"Why do you think that?" Kol finally asked, after taking a few moments to gather his own thoughts.

"I bound her to you, Kol," she reminded him. "Her life is bound to yours. The daggers temporarily kill you guys, so if you're temporarily dead, she will be, too."

Kol rubbed a hand across his mouth, but his shoulders stiffened, rolling forward from the relaxed posture he had most times of the day. "What makes you so sure?"

"I'm not," she sighed.

"Then it's a theory," he decided, but he glanced back at me now, allowing me to see the question that had rippled across his face. Was the bind to his life that literal?

Prisca stood up, the tears dry from her face and her body more relaxed than it had been since Kol and I stepped into the room. She was still visibly distraught, but she wasn't overcome with sobs, wasn't fighting off an inevitable crumbling.

She cleared her throat, barely shrugging her shoulders. "We can test it."

"How can we . . . ." I trailed off, thinking back to the last time any of us had seen the daggers—just the day before, when they stabbed me with it to attempt to turn back on my humanity. Kol had given it to them, believing it would make me come back, and in so many ways, it did. From the moment I had the dagger stabbed into me, it became inevitable, even if I had fought against it with all of my strength. "The dagger." I spun back around to face Kol, and I watched the corners of his lips turn up a bit. "You haven't had a chance to hide the dagger that you used to scare my humanity back on with. Where is it?"

"I _did_ have an actual dagger on me," he admitted. "And I do still have it hidden upstairs, but without the white oak ash, it's just a silver dagger."

"What about desiccation?" Bonnie suggested, something that had Kol's eyes widening fully. "I don't remember much about it, but I remember my mom telling me that when Mikael came to town when you were both younger, looking for Elena, she desiccated him to ensure he couldn't find her. That's how she lost connection with her magic for so long, why she left—all of that."

"That sounds familiar, but you have to stop a human heart," Shea informed her, which seemed like news to Bonnie. Her mother had told her more about why she left, but she clearly hadn't told her _why_ she left. "We don't exactly have a lot of those lying around."

"We could just break his neck."

Klaus made the suggestion with a bit too much enthusiasm behind his words, but it was something that none of us had thought about. Temporary death was temporary death, whether with a dagger or other means.

If I was truly bound to Kol the way that Bonnie believed, it _should_ work.

Kol seemed to have the same thoughts as I did, and he stepped closer to his brother, wordlessly giving him permission to break his neck. It was probably something Klaus thought about doing often, and Kol told me about the time he broke his neck all through the night to ensure Kol didn't use the full moon to bind himself to me.

Klaus didn't even hesitate, simply put his hands on his brother's neck and snapped. It was hard to watch, but I had sort of gotten used to it during our selfish retreat we had made those months ago, during the time he snuck me away for a couple of days and taught me to use my magic more than anyone ever had.

I had broken his neck a few times, and it made me cry each time, even though I knew he would come back. I didn't like the idea of hurting him, and seeing him hurt now . . . .

One glance away from his limp body, I realized that all eyes were on _me_ , and they were waiting for me to fall over. They were waiting on me to just suddenly fall dead, but I didn't feel it happening. There was no sudden switch inside, nothing that made me believe I might be about to die.

"I don't feel any—"

* * *

 **A/N: Seriously, it's hard to write someone just suddenly getting their next snapped. I don't know any other way to do it besides abruptly cutting things off.**

 **You're about to reach the chapters that start setting up part 3. :) They've been entertaining to write, to say the least. I've almost got a fairly linear storyline for part 3, so as soon as I finish writing the rest of the chapters of this one, I will begin the outline for part 3.**

 **This would not be possible without your continued support for this story. It means a lot to me, and I'm so glad that you all enjoy this story. :) I hope you continue to do so as it goes on.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy.**


	31. 30: NOLA

"Feels like this could be forever tonight.  
Break these clocks, forget about time.  
There could be a World War 3 goin' on outside. . .

. . .Won't you stay 'til the A.M.?  
All my favorite conversations  
Always made in the A.M.  
Cause we don't know what we're saying.  
We're just swimming round in our glasses  
And talking out of our asses,  
Like we're all gonna make it."

 _Made In the A.M._ : One Direction

* * *

Night had fallen by the time my eyes opened again, but I only barely noticed, as Kol was between the windows and me, reaching a hand down to help me to my feet.

"This was a bit more than I expected," he murmured, and his eyes were hardened, ever so slightly. I imagined it had something to do with the consequences of his choices, coming back to bite him, but I didn't let it deter me from what we had previously been talking about.

I had no idea how long we had actually been out, but it had been a few hours, at least. Picking up the conversation right where it left off was easy for me, but I didn't know if it would be for them, with the time that had passed while they were all busy being, you know, not dead.

"Okay, so we both go down together." I glanced at each person to see if they could remember, if they could jump right back in, and with no one looking even remotely confused, I decided to continue. "Don't we need two people, one for each life? If they're going to be bound to anyone's life, it should be ours, right?"

Elijah took a deep breath, and he gave me a tight smile. "It only has to be one, and I couldn't take both of their parents from them. Besides, Darcy, we need you to do the linking spell. You're the only witch we have left. I will do it."

If there was one thing I knew, it was that Elijah absolutely loved his niece and nephew. He had been against Kol doing the binding spell because of the only outcome they had found about it, because the woman had gone insane with power and driven her lover to suicide because he could never truly please her, but he had been the most vocal about the power of the twins, about how they bound the family back together.

There was so much light in his eyes when he looked at them, when he saw the way his family interacted as a family should. He was _happy_. He had found some semblance of peace after so many centuries, but he was willing to throw all of that away? He was willing to miss it all?

"We don't know how long this is gonna be," I said. "We don't know when they'll want to turn, or even _if_ . . . ." I trailed off, my mind wandering off to the things that hadn't even occurred to me.

What if Alastor and Theia never wanted to be a vampire? What if they chose to live full lives, die, and then never complete their transition?

I didn't know if I could handle that, truly, but it would be their choice to make.

What if Elijah had to be daggered for seventy plus years?

"No," he agreed, and his smile softened. The muscles in his posture relaxed, and he stuck one hand into the pocket of his pants. "But I would gladly dagger myself to ensure that my niece and nephew don't die in the middle of our wars. This is our fight. If we hadn't become monsters throughout the years, no one would've thought anything about them being born. They would've been free to live their lives however they chose."

"Make the gold dagger."

Everyone still remaining in the house was a vampire, so even though Klaus had barely whispered, we all heard.

I hadn't realized that everyone else had come into the room sometime while Kol and I were out, but the rest of the group that stayed behind was in the room to hear Klaus say probably the last thing I ever expected to hear come from his mouth.

Despite hearing him, I had to clarify, to ensure we were on the same page. "What?"

His eyes met mine briefly before moving away, towards the man standing next to me—his little brother, who had often been treated as the outcast of the family. "You spoke of redemption, brother. Let me take this first step towards mine. I would like you to make the gold dagger so my life might be used to ensure my niece and nephew have a chance to live theirs."

I didn't want to cry because damn it, I had cried enough for a century, but how could I not? This was everything I had ever wanted for Kol. At one point, I considered leaving him so that he could have a chance at the family, but he insisted that it was a lost cause, that his family would never be what a family should be. He had given up, after centuries of hurt and betrayal. After centuries of _trying_ , he eventually decided that there was no hope for them after all.

Until the twins came along, and suddenly, it was all real. His family was everything he ever wanted. They protected one another, fiercely, and they were _there_. Though Kol had the daggers, after centuries of betrayal making him not able to fully trust what was going on, there was no betrayal. There was no stabbing anyone in the back. All anyone cared about anymore was protecting the twins, was watching them grow up into whatever they may one day become.

They weren't monsters. They were innocent children, children who had a chance to be more than whatever the spirits had already decided that they were.

Kol stared at his brother incredulously, his lips parted just enough to let air through, and Klaus, seeing that his brother had no idea what to even say, came over to put his hand on his shoulder.

It was suddenly clear. Without being said, Klaus was ready to be the brother Kol always wanted. He was ready to allow the bond of family to change his life, to allow people closer to him.

Maybe he saw that family was power, not weakness as he had always believed, and at the heart of family was what Klaus continued to call Kol's greatest weakness—love.

Kol's love for me was different than familial love. It was the love of soulmates, the love of two lonely hearts uniting and finding one another. It was the kind of love that I imagined people tried to write stories about but somehow couldn't find the words, much like the way I tried to explain it the other day. Elena wrote journals. Stefan and Elijah did as well, so I thought I'd tried it.

I tried writing down that I loved Kol, and I tried to explain it every way I knew how, but all I could come up with was the words other half, soulmate, the missing puzzle piece to the girl that I was before.

It was impossible to think of him as anything less because the moment I pulled that dagger out, for reasons I still struggled to explain out-loud, I had changed in the best of ways. Some might argue that I had grown selfish, that I had only changed for the worst, but I had developed. I had become the person I always felt I was meant to be.

Kol brought out every part of me, good or bad, and he helped me be the me that I was meant to be. Surrounded by death, even after I died, he was the only person who made me feel alive—more alive than I had been the first eighteen years of my life. If that wasn't a soulmate, I refused to believe that soulmates were even real.

Kol stared back at Klaus, whose hand was still on his shoulder, but he eventually got over his surprise, enough that he could speak. "We . . . we need to go to New Orleans."

Klaus nodded, giving his brother a tight smile. "We leave tomorrow."

"Why New Orleans?" Caroline asked, but she had to clear her throat, had to rub some tears threatening to fall down her cheeks away before anyone might see them. "Is that where you keep the daggers?"

Kol shook his head. "It's where there is one dagger, along with everything else Darcy will need to make this dagger gold instead of silver."

"I will make the necessary arrangements." Elijah crossed the room, sitting in the chairs around the table where the laptop rested and pulled it open. "We need to decide who is going."

"Last I was in New Orleans, Marcellus was still alive," Klaus said, and though I had never actually heard that name before, I saw the surprise in the Mikaelson's eyes. "Things are different than they were when we were there a century ago. It's very tense, though I didn't stick around to investigate why. I left town before anyone saw me."

"We have to get into the tomb, inside Lafayette Cemetery," Kol said, but his eyes were moving between his brothers. "Mary-Alice sealed it off, and we'll need a Claire witch to remove the seal."

"I sealed Mary-Alice away in Fauline Cottage over a century ago," Klaus reminded Kol, who simply rolled his eyes. "No one who enters can leave, so there's no way she had a child."

"She _did_ have a sister, however," Kol said. "A sister who was with child. It was one of the reasons she was so willing to stand against you."

I held my hands up, the moment I notice Klaus' eyes tighten. "Okay, so, New Orleans is _clearly_ not a good time in your lives."

"On the contrary, we had never been happier than we were in New Orleans," Elijah spoke up, and he leaned back into the back of the chair he sat in. "It was our home for the longest."

"You don't need a Claire witch," Shea spoke up, which caught everyone's attention before things could actually turn sour, despite Klaus' very heartfelt sacrifice. "You have Darcy."

Kol nodded. "Yes, but if Marcellus is alive, he knows that the tomb is sealed. The last thing we need right now is _anyone_ finding out about Darcy's retained magic after turning. Didn't you say that yourself?"

"No, I agree with that," she assured him. "I'm just saying that if worse comes to worse, Darcy can do it."

"She's the plan Z then," Klaus decided, and he moved across the room to stand next to Elijah. "So I suppose it can't just be the three of us."

"I have to make the dagger, genius." I already wore a smirk when Klaus's gaze snapped to me, but his irritation didn't bother me in the slightest. "Besides, I've never been to New Orleans."

"I promise that when this is all over, I will show you the world, Darcy Gilbert," Kol murmured just before reaching down to grab onto my hand. "But we're not going to site see. We need to get in, make the gold dagger, and get out."

Klaus rubbed his hand across his mouth. "Yes, well, I'm afraid it won't be quite that simple."

Kol's brow furrowed towards his brother. "Why not?"

"I gave Marcellus the paragon diamond to protect."

"Damn it!" Kol let go of my hand so he could rub his hands over his face. "Well, I suppose we'll have to pay Marcellus a little visit then."

"If what Niklaus says about the city is true, he's probably the one in charge," Elijah pointed out. "We need to be careful what we do and say, so I recommend you just remain silent."

I tried not to smile at Kol, mostly because I knew it was gonna appear smug. It was hard not to be, though, because it was becoming very obvious that this Marcellus man and Kol didn't get along at all, so much so that Kol wanted to avoid him entirely.

His eyes tightened. "What is that look for?"

"I'm just trying to picture you being nice to someone, or staying quiet."

He rolled his eyes. "You're hilarious."

"Actually, Darcy, you may come in handy after all," Klaus said, interrupting our conversation before I had any chance to come up with some sort of rebuttal. "How far are you willing to take this?"

"What do you mean?" I folded my arms over my chest. "The fact that you're asking me that makes me nervous."

Klaus's eyes began to shimmer, with an arrogance that was pretty much always there, despite how insecure he really was. "Don't worry, love. You don't have to kill anyone."

"Okay, so what exactly are you suggesting?"

"I'm simply suggesting that we don't know the first thing about what's going on in New Orleans, and as a new face that Marcellus wouldn't know and wouldn't expect—"

"You're not seriously suggesting that she go in there alone, are you?" Kol asked, a breath pushing through his nose. "We're Original vampires. What can Marcellus do to us?"

"It's not about what he can do to us," Elijah reminded him gently, though his eyes were stern when they moved over to his youngest brother. "It's about bargaining. If we go in there and he feels threatened, someone could die. If it happens to be someone he cares about, why would he give us what we need?"

Kol sighed. "So what exactly is it you're suggesting Darcy does?"

"Well, we all know how . . . charming she can be."

My eyebrows pulled up on my forehead, and I began to laugh, before Kol got a chance to get angry at whatever his brother was suggesting. "Wait. Are you suggesting that I go in alone and _charm_ him?" When Klaus only smiled wider, I shook my head. "That won't work! I'm not charming, even remotely. I'm actually one of the most awkward people in the world."

"I don't know, Darcy," Bonnie spoke up, and she wore a rather wry grin. "You're not exactly the same person you were a year ago."

"Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't know the first thing about charming anyone," I pointed out. "I used to think that everyone liked Elena better because she was prettier and not, you know, weird looking, but I started realizing that I think it actually had a lot to do with the fact that I don't know how to talk to people! I wouldn't know the first thing about 'charming' anyone."

Kol was pinching the bridge of his nose before I even finished, his eyes squeezed shut, but the moment the words stopped pouring from my lips, they opened. "Okay, love, this is not about whether you're _capable_ of doing this because you could definitely do what he's suggesting. It's just not going to happen."

"Oh, come on!" Caroline exclaimed, and her blue eyes shimmered with a hint of deviousness that was reminiscent of the morning after Kol and my first date, when she was ready for all the juiciest details of our night—without putting the vulgar "Darcy" details in. "Think of it like a little role-playing. That could be fun, right?"

I shrugged. "Until someone ends up dead."

"You have anger management issues, sir," Caroline sighed, but her eyes tightened towards Kol. He had started smiling widely from the moment I mentioned someone dying, so I imagined I was probably accurate to guess that. "You should really work on that."

"I've had anger management issues for a thousand years, darling." He tore his gaze from me, to allow Caroline to see the smug glow that only brightened his smirk. "Tell me something I don't already know."

"Kol's jealousy aside, Niklaus makes a good suggestion," Elijah spoke up, pulling himself from the computer once again so he could drift back into the conversation. "You don't have to do much. We just need to figure out where Marcellus is, and you can go in and distract him, long enough that we can assess the dangers of the room. We can decide if he will help us willingly or not."

I didn't like this plan at _all_ , and the rage darkening Kol's eyes made it obvious that he didn't either. From where I stood, however, there wasn't much other choice. I didn't know why they couldn't just go up and greet as old friends, but I didn't know much of anything about the situation.

They had a lot of enemies, and I didn't know if this Marcellus was one of them or not. I didn't know anything about their time in New Orleans, so I couldn't really say much at all. All I could do was smile and agree, pretend that I was sure I could do what they were asking . . . or really just telling because no one asked if I could do it.

With those plans finalized, the rest of the people agreed to try and stay shut in while also keeping an eye out for any Gemini. It was a bit unsettling that they were here, yet they hadn't done anything. Shea tried to tell me that they weren't going to just walk head first into this when it could very well mean the end of the Gemini, so I took _some_ comfort in that.

Our flight left at six in the morning, but Elijah suggested that we get there more than just an hour early, with all the traveling that could be going on because of Valentine's Day.

I hadn't even realized . . . but it was tomorrow.

It was gonna be our first Valentine's Day together, and that had been one of those holidays that I found silly and trivial. Things were different now, and Valentine's Day . . . it wasn't so silly. I understood why there was a day to celebrate love. The world needed more days like that, more days where people put aside all else and simply loved, but more than all of that, it was a day to celebrate _our_ love, which had gotten us through so many things already. Kol had declared it a weakness, but how many times would it prove to be a strength before he finally just accepted and believed it?

Kol had mentioned that we weren't going to be site seeing while in New Orleans, but damn it, I was spoiled, and I wanted to make Valentine's Day the best I could for him. Even if it meant we didn't leave our hotel room, I wanted it to be something he could remember. I wanted him to feel loved, as people were supposed to feel on that day.

My mind had been so lost in thought that I didn't even realize that everyone else had dispersed, gone off to their rooms for whatever various reasons they might've had. Only Kol remained, and though he noticed I was lost in my thoughts, he didn't say anything. There was so much for _him_ to think about, things I didn't imagine were easy for him to come to terms with.

I held my hand out towards him, and he took it almost immediately, a small smile touching his lips that I longed to feel against mine, almost constantly. "We should probably go to bed."

"We should, shouldn't we?"

His words were soft, soft enough that it was hard to decide if there was hidden meaning in them. Kol was very against sleeping most times, and after I became a vampire, quiet sex had been easy enough. In the four days I had been a vampire, we had already found a way to be together intimately more than I ever expected us to be able to do, with the twins and everything.

I didn't know if he planned to try and get out of sleeping tonight, but I followed behind him anyways. His steps were slow, slower than a human might move, and I realized then that his mind was on something else entirely.

He sat at the edge of the bed the moment he reached it, but I didn't sit next to him. I watched his eyes fill with wonder, watched the features of his face practically melt as the reality was truly sinking in.

I closed the door behind me and let out a breath. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

He blinked, tearing his gaze over to me as I approached the bed. "What?"

I reached out to grab onto his face, to give him more comfort in the middle of his already beautiful moment of comfort—of _familial_ love. "Having siblings who have your back."

He let out a breath of his own, but just hearing the words said out-loud brought a smile to his face that I was certain he wasn't used to, at least when talking about his family. "Should I be afraid? Should I worry that none of this is real?"

"No." My hands fell from his face, and though I knew the dangers of what I was doing, I nestled into his lap, tucking my legs beside his so that we were on a more eye-to-eye level with one another. "I've seen this coming, though I guess I didn't really see _that_ coming. He just hid it well, behind all the walls he put up to appear like he was made of stone. I had seen a man behind those walls. I just had no idea he would ever make this choice."

"I thought that man died when we did," he admitted. "After our mother put the curse on him to keep his werewolf side dormant, he changed. I thought maybe it was because Nik was gone."

"He didn't." I began raking my fingers through his hair. "He's still in there. If tonight wasn't proof enough of that, I don't know what is."

His eyes focused on me now, and I barely saw him smile before he leaned forward, pressing his lips against mine with a tenderness that wasn't like him. He could hold me softly, kiss me softly, but he hadn't done it since I became a vampire, since everything that happened. Since coming back with the twins, he always kissed me with urgency, like he was scared it might be the last kiss.

That wasn't even remotely a fear anymore, and his lips were soft against mine.

"Thank you," he whispered, after just a few moments of kissing me.

I grabbed onto his face again, knotting my fingers within the soft locks of his brown hair. "For what?"

"For loving me," he murmured, and the words were so delicate . . . my dead heart swelled inside my chest, so much that I wondered if it was possible to kill me by making my heart explode. "For being the one piece of good in my life when no one else wanted to be."

I pressed my lips against his, just barely, and shifted my weight towards him. He had to wrap his arms around me, to hold me in place, and he crushed me into him, so much that our chests collided with each breath.

"I will always be in your life," I said. "No matter what. I will be by your side, forever."

His lips found mine more fiercely this time, but the urgency wasn't back. There was just more passion, more fervor, and it was very obvious very quickly where this kiss was headed—down a hot and delightful road that we didn't need to take tonight.

Despite his teeth latching onto my bottom lip, I pulled myself away, and I gave him a massive smile. "I just said forever."

"That's nice." His grip on me tightened, and his brows lifted with the corners of his lips. "Let's get undressed."

"Kol."

That only made his smile widen, revealing the perfectly set teeth behind it, and I watched them scrape along his bottom lip, watched his eyes catch fire in reflection of my own. "Darcy."

My body was growing restless, and my heart pulsed against me, resonating a deep echo through my veins in sync with the increased blood flow throughout my entire body. "We're not getting undressed except to change and go to bed."

"Oh come on." He flipped us both around suddenly, hovering his fully clothed body over mine in a way that had my mind racing, remembering the flesh that hid beneath the clothing. "We'll fill up at the airport and be fine."

"Oh my God." Despite him on top of me, I felt the fire quickly becoming much colder, icing over the blood in my veins and all but stopping my heart. "Kol, what if I . . . I haven't been around people."

He shifted himself so that he pressed into me, but his weight still didn't fully lay on me. It gave him freedom to grab onto my face, to force my gaze into his own liquid one. There wasn't fear in his eyes, like there must've been in mine, and that alone had me warming back up. "Relax, darling. I won't let you hurt anyone. I was mostly joking. You'll fill up with blood bags until we're able to teach you proper control."

He didn't give me much time to think about what he was saying, to feel relief with his promise that I wouldn't hurt anyone, because his lips began moving down my neck.

Of course I knew that Kol had sworn to kill anyone he had to so that I never had to experience the pain of killing someone, but I didn't know how much power the monster had over me, how much power the dormant curse had. Could he fight both of them? Could _I_ fight both of them?

I didn't know, but I didn't really wanna find out. I had to, though, because I had to go to New Orleans, to somehow use my "charm" to distract this Marcellus man long enough for them to assess the dangers.

Kol's musk overpowered me, however, the warm scent of his chocolate mint soap and _him_ , and I found myself submitting to our desires. Logic could go away for a little bit. An hour wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

His lips reached the skin of my collar bone, and I let out the softest moan, the first sign of submission Kol always waited for. "Okay, _fine_. One more time won't hurt anyone."

Kol's hands slid to the bottom of my dress, and he ripped it over my head almost immediately, not caring how rough the action itself was. "Thank you."

With his lips on mine, I didn't care either, and I honestly wondered if I had just doomed us.

Would we be able to stop? Most times, I imagined we would, but it had been a wild night. Kol was _finally_ feeling good in his life, more than just the good that love could bring into his life. His family was being a family, in the most noticeable and undeniable way, so would we really be able to stop at once?

His elation levels were too high for me to believe that we could.

* * *

 **A/N: So here it is, the start of the build-up for part 3. Seriously, you guys have no idea how much is actually gonna go down in part 3. I'm honestly contemplating making it into two parts simply because so much is gonna happen, and it could end up being over 50 chapters, easily.**

 **I don't know. We'll see how it all goes. There was a time when I was only going to make a part 2, after all. :)**

 **Also, I know that there's a way to bind the twins' lives to someone without requiring them to be daggered, but that isn't the spell they found or the spell they use. The one they use is something else.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy! :)**


	32. 31: Always and Forever

"I've got a young heart,  
And it's wild and free.  
And I don't know where it starts,  
But it ends with you and me.  
It's a hard road  
As far as I can see.  
I don't where I'm going,  
But I'll get back to you and me.

'Cause we're two kids  
Trying to start a fight.  
No matter where we go,  
Yeah, we'll be alright.  
All I'm asking for,  
A bit of patience, please  
'Cause I know what's to come,  
And it's coming for you and me."

 _You and Me_ : Niall Horan

* * *

"Remind me why I let you talk me into that again."

Kol kept to his promise that I wouldn't have to feed on a person. He had actually provided me with two blood bags, and they _had_ given me a boost, until we had to sit for an hour and a half and wait for our flight to board. All I wanted to do was sleep, but it was too crowded around us. Even this early in the morning, there were a lot of people.

Maybe it was because of Valentine's Day, like Elijah suggested.

A breath passed through his lips, and I wondered if he was smiling. With his head laying on top of mine, which was propped up on his shoulder as I curled into the uncomfortable airport chair, I couldn't actually see for myself, but it made me smile to just imagine that he was.

"I'm not entirely sure." He pressed his lips against my head. "It was worth it, though. I'd do it over again."

"Me too."

Of course we couldn't stop. Of course Kol's euphoria drove us through the night, paired with the excitement I felt for him. This was what he longed for his entire immortal life, and it was finally happening.

Some freak accident, a pregnancy that never should've come to be, changed his life in so many ways, for the better.

Nonetheless, the night had been amazing, and no matter how exhausted I was, I _would_ have done it all over again.

Aside from sex being the most incredible feeling in the world now, even better than the rush of power I got after drinking blood, I would've made love to Kol all through the night at any point. It had a way of making him feel better than anything else could, and while that seemed obvious, it wasn't just the pleasure of it all. It was the love, the high from our love connecting us together in an intimate way.

It was intimacy that he never knew, but he would now, for the rest of eternity.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember that I hadn't actually known him all that long, and two of those months had been spent running, but it didn't matter. He was the other piece of me that I needed to be whole, and I wouldn't go without that anymore. I honestly wasn't sure I _could_.

Just as I started to say something else, to change the subject, our flight was announced. Klaus and Elijah were the first to stand up, as they weren't fucking exhausted as we were, but neither of them had said anything. They didn't scold us or call us love struck idiots.

Maybe they were just gonna leave us be. That would be nice.

The flight was only supposed to be around three hours, a non-stop flight, but three hours was all our bodies would need. I barely even noticed the process of us boarding, barely even noticed as we passed through the terminal to board our flight. All I cared about was getting to our seats and passing out for the next three hours.

Since I had never flown anywhere, I didn't realize that first-class had become pretty non-existent on most flights, and if it _was_ on a flight, there were scarcely any seats. There was something known as business-class, which was what Elijah had gotten for us, and it was everything I had thought first-class actually was. The seats were spacious with just few enough people that a newly turned vampire wouldn't be too close to anyone else. Despite seeing the people around me, despite smelling their blood, I was far enough away from them all that I didn't have the urge to kill anyone.

Elijah had gotten the two seats just inside the business-class cabin, in the back corner, as well as two directly in front of those, and with the window seat, I had three vampires between me and everyone else. I hadn't thought much about the actual flight, as I had been too worried about the airport itself, but they had thought ahead for me.

Maybe one day, I might fit in well enough that it wasn't totally obvious that I was new to this vampire thing.

The armrests, thankfully, pulled up, and the seats reclined. They almost seemed as if they would lay all the way down, but we didn't need them to do that. We just needed to get a bit more comfortable, comfortable enough that we could get about three hours of napping in.

It worked, too. Snuggled onto the comfort of Kol's chest, with his arm holding me against him, I slept well enough that when my eyes opened back again, with movement beneath me, I felt good. I almost felt like I had slept through the night.

Kol was stirring, trying to sit up gently, but his eyes were warm and on me, glowing with the smile that danced across his mouth. "We're here, love."

With the people around me standing up and leaving, with Klaus and Elijah staring at us over the seats, as they had already stood up and stood waiting for me to wake up, that made perfect sense. I rubbed my hands over my eyes and stood up, and Kol did the same, reaching down to take my hand before either of us actually moved into the isle.

We had packed pretty light, light enough that we didn't have carry-ons, so the four of us simply exited the plane.

The sun was bright, but it might've been because I wasn't fully awake yet. It was too bright to take in the area around me. All I saw were other passengers that had exited the plane, or the pavement that surrounded the plane. In the short distance, I could see the massive airport, so that was where we were headed.

As we stepped inside, my body woke up almost immediately. The airport in New Orleans was much different than the one we had left in Phoenix, much more modern. There were more people, but they weren't so clustered because of the open area. It almost looked brand new, but I wondered if it had simply been modified.

"I never really thought much about flying, but I never imagined an airport would look like this."

It hadn't occurred to me until I looked up at Kol and saw the wondrous glow in his eyes that this was his first time on a plane as well. This was his first visit to an airport because commercial flights were nonexistent before he was daggered the last time.

"It's moments like this that the century is a bit overwhelming," he admitted. "Most of the time, I can adjust relatively well, but it's things like this that are just astounding."

I took another look around the room. "Okay, so I get that you and this Marcellus guy don't get along, but do you at least have good memories in New Orleans?"

He let out a breath, but his smile didn't fade, even if the light in his eyes did just a little. "Yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

His gaze shifted towards his brother, who walked just slightly ahead of us. "Well, the last time I was here, I was daggered."

Klaus glanced back at us, wearing a smile of his own that actually seemed genuine and kind. "Oh, let's let bygones be bygones."

Kol shrugged. "I'm not angry anymore because I go from Christmas in New Orleans to October in Mystic Falls, which is where you came in, love."

My jaw dropped a bit. "Okay, come on, seriously? You daggered him on Christmas?"

"It wasn't _on_ Christmas," Klaus disagreed, but he slowed down a bit, enough that Kol and I caught up to them fully. "It was at a Christmas party."

"Doesn't change what I said."

Despite the fact that I was pointing out how awful something he had done was, he laughed genuinely. "You don't know the full history of Christmas, love. It's actually a fairly horrible holiday."

"Okay, why is everyone so determined to ruin Christmas for me?" I demanded, which only made Kol begin laughing, rather vibrantly. Hearing that sound at any time was beyond amazing, but to hear it in the middle of a discussion about what Klaus had done to him . . . it was everything I had hoped to one day achieve, without actually believing that it was possible.

I was immortal. I was a vampire, an Original vampire, and Kol had his family, the way that he deserved to have them. Life was perfect, and then add in the fact that we had twins? I couldn't imagine how much better it could really get, the twins' safety aside.

"Our family doesn't have the best history," Elijah spoke up, since Klaus and Kol were too busy laughing at me to actually say anything, and there was a warm smile on his lips, warmth in his eyes. "I am grateful to see that it is just that, however. We are going to get through this trying time with the twins very much alive, and we will celebrate Christmas however you would like, Darcy. You know, it astounds me how easily you seem to look past some of the horrible things we've done."

My eyebrows rose. "What do you mean?"

"Well, love, we did try to kill you and all of your friends at one point," Klaus reminded me. "I did try to use you as a human blood bag."

"Right, well, I don't look at all of that," I admitted, and though I was speaking to everyone, I found myself glancing over at Kol the most. He was already looking at me, with softness in his eyes that had become endearing. "I look at the fact that you're putting everything aside to protect my children. What you did in the past is just that, like Elijah said. It's all history, history that doesn't matter anymore."

Elijah's muscles relaxed, the corners of his lips pulling up a bit further. "I have done many things I regret in the name of standing by my brother's side, in the name of a promise we made centuries ago."

I could just _feel_ Kol tense beside me, and I had expected it after hearing Elijah mention the "always and forever" promise that they had always left Kol out of, for whatever reason. I didn't know the reason, or if there ever was one, but I couldn't imagine Elena and I making that promise and leaving Jeremy out of it, no matter what.

Elijah and Klaus both suddenly stopped walking, and Kol and I did the same, just out of curiosity. We didn't know what they were doing, but they both seemed to know, to understand what the other brother was doing without anything being said.

Klaus reached over and put one hand on Kol's shoulder, placing the other on Elijah's, and I had never seen him look so real before. He was happy, genuinely, and for once, he wasn't afraid to let anyone see that.

His gaze moved between the three of us, but it seemed to linger on Kol the longest. "We all made mistakes, the biggest being our decision to exclude Kol from that promise for centuries. Always and forever is a promise we will keep, to protect one another always and forever—Rebekah, Elijah, myself, Kol, and I suppose Finn, now that the bastard's up and less annoying."

I didn't imagine that crying was the appropriate response right now, but holy shit, I _wanted_ to. Always and forever was something that Kol wanted to hear, wanted to be a part of so badly that he did horrible things just to get their attention. He just wanted to be family, just as much as any of the other siblings, and now . . . now he was. Maybe it had been implied before, but there was something different about implications and plain stating.

I noticed his fingers pinch the bridge of his nose before moving to rub across his eyes, probably to wipe back tears of his own, and his smile put the sun to shame, on this ridiculously bright day.

I knew I had to distract from the conversation, so I grabbed on to the last part of what Klaus said, about Finn. "He's still your brother."

Elijah was still smiling as I looked between the two, and he nodded his head forward a bit, towards me. "That also includes you."

"What?"

"And of course Alastor and Theia," Klaus added on.

"We are sworn to protect our family," Elijah explained, when he noticed my eyes begin to widen. "And Kol was right to say that you are a part of our family, always and forever."

Right now, I was trying to not be overwhelmed by the fact that they had said that to Kol, finally. I was grateful it had been said that Alastor and Theia were a part of that as well, even if that had been very noticeably implied already, and I liked the idea of being part of that, part of the family. There was a time where the thought of being part of the Mikaelson family, even close to any of them, horrified me, but then I met Kol. Then I realized that I was judging them, a bit too harshly. They were people, behind all the bad and hurt.

To keep myself from crying like an idiot, I smirked over at Klaus and folded my arms over my chest. "So you decided that I was so bad at this being a vampire thing, doomed to die so quickly, that I needed protection."

Like I hoped, it made him laugh, and it helped Kol get over his overwhelming joy for a moment as well, to smirk down at me.

"I don't imagine you do, but that doesn't make it any less true."

I shifted my gaze from Klaus, over to the brother that had changed my view on the Mikaelsons, and life in general, and I couldn't explain the way he suddenly stared back at me. It was different, from even the gentle affection that had blossomed the more I was back with the twins, the more we were together. It was vibrant and very real, very intimate, but I couldn't understand what about this moment made he stare at me that way.

I didn't know, but I suddenly felt overwhelmed with love. The elation was coming back, despite my attempts to distract myself from it, but I suppose that was part of love. Someone's happiness becomes your own, and when their elation is overwhelming to them, it has to be for you, too—to see the person you love happier than they had ever been.

Kol liked to think that he would've been fine with just me, but it never could've compared to how happy he could be with his family. He would see that now, with his family learning to be a real family.

Now, life would truly be perfect . . . or at least as perfect as it could be with witches trying to murder my children. One day, that would all be over, but for now, life was basically perfect.

For both of us.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay. Family bonding. :)**

 **Read, review, and enjoy.**


	33. 32: Posers

"I wanna be your everything and more.  
And I know every day you say it,  
But I just want you to be sure  
That I'm yours.

And if I've been feeling heavy,  
You take me from the dark.  
Your arms they keep me steady  
So nothing could fall apart.  
And I will find my strength to untame my mouth  
When I used to be afraid of the words,  
But with you, I've learned just to let it out.  
Now my heart is ready to burst."

 _Yours_ : Ella Henderson

* * *

New Orleans was everything and nothing that I expected it to be, in all of the best ways.

There were people everywhere, so many people, but there was music. There was _life_. It was the kind of place that one might come to experience true adventure, and I imagined it was Kol's paradise. The music was played through instruments, through various people along the streets, so it wasn't the "garbage" of modern times.

It was alive, nothing like the tense place that Klaus had mentioned. They were all alert, noticing tension that I couldn't see, so I decided that I was blissfully oblivious. It didn't bother me at first, not until I noticed Kol refusing to hold my hand.

There really was something bad around us . . . something that made him not want to risk people seeing the two of us together, in any way.

Though they were all tense, that didn't stop Kol from whining about the "posers," the witches set up around the corner pretending to be psychic. The three Original brothers stopped, so I figured I needed to do the same.

I smirked back at Kol, whose eyes lit up almost instantly, past the irritation of the fake witches around us. "Stop being a baby. You're just pouting because you can't access magic anymore."

Klaus didn't bother trying to stifle the laughter that erupted out of him, though Elijah did. He tries to cover it up, but he couldn't hide the smile that came with it, couldn't hide the way his eyes lit up with humor.

That was the best part about smiles. Even if they didn't show on the lips, if they were real, you could see it in someone's eyes, in the light that sparkled inside.

Kol, however, wasn't amused, but he _was_ smiling. It made the glare he sent my way far less believable, and it gave me the confidence to just smile, to bat my eyelashes and look as innocent as I could possibly manage.

The way his teeth ground together wasn't restraint to say something snippy back. It wasn't Kol trying to hide back his anger, but instead the darker parts of him, the parts that loved destroying everything innocent about me—to an extent. I didn't imagine there was anything inside of him that wanted me to kill someone, at least not before. Now that he knew that it hurt me to ignore my werewolf curse, I wondered if he still completely felt that way.

After everything that had happened, I didn't worry that he would do something to set me up to kill someone. Honestly, I didn't worry about that before, but I especially didn't now, not now that he was coming to terms with the fact that things were dangerous right now. We had to think everything through carefully.

Eventually, I realized that Kol wasn't going to be able to get ahold of himself that easily, so I decided to give him a means of escape, dropping the innocent façade and smirking instead. "Anyways, I think we came here for a reason, and it wasn't to bash poser witches or stare at me all day."

"You're right." His eyes immediately darted away from me and towards the crowd, but they stopped almost as quickly as they had left me, focusing on someone behind me. "That woman is real."

I turned back towards the crowd, and I started trying to do the same. The women sitting around were reading palms, doing the card trick thing, or other stereotypical "witch voodoo" that was probably something people expected to find in New Orleans.

None of them stood out as actual witches, though. I knew I could figure out a real witch from a fake one if I actually got close to them, but I didn't know the plan just yet.

We had to find Marcel. The best way to do that was contact a witch in New Orleans. Klaus had mentioned that New Orleans was a strange place. There were vampire factions, werewolf factions, witch factions, and then the human faction. They coexisted, so if we found a witch, she might could show us to Marcel, or know of him at least—maybe even enough that she could do a locator spell on him.

I followed his gaze eventually, focusing on an older woman. She seemed to be finishing a palm reading with a young tourist, and her smile was soft. Honestly, she looked like a really nice woman, with warm eyes. Nothing about her struck me as a witch, especially one that might want to kill us.

My head tilted to the side. "How can you tell?"

"Witches can sense vampires with one touch, and over the years, we've developed a way of seeing it for ourselves," Elijah explained, before Kol could come up with an answer. "You'll learn to do the same in time."

I kept my gaze set on the woman and started to walk towards her, as I watched the tourist stand up and scurry away. Someone's hand wrapping around my arm stopped me, and I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know who grabbed onto me.

His hands were familiar, but they still felt like magic against my skin. It didn't how familiar they would become. The touch would always be like nothing else.

Though his eyes darkened, they weren't by any means glaring at me. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, you're not exactly nice," I reminded him. "Someone nice needs to talk to her."

The corners of his eyes tightened in sync with the muscles of his jaw. "Elijah is plenty nice."

I wanted to fold my arms over my chest but couldn't, with his hand wrapped around mine. Still, I glared back at him, as fiercely as I could—which wasn't fierce, if I haven't mentioned. "Didn't you say we needed to keep an eye out for witches? For anyone who might try to hurt us? I clearly can't do that."

Elijah cleared his throat and came to stand beside me, ripping his brother's gaze from me. "She's right, Kol."

He was less than pleased, but he let go of my arm, a deep sigh pushing from his nose with his lips pressed so firmly together. "Alright. Fine. Just remember that you need to ask her if she knows where we might find Marcellus, and that's it. Don't linger, alright?"

"Got it."

I spun around my heels and headed for this woman, not giving him a chance to second guess the decision. He was second guessing a lot of things, but as much as he might not like it, this _was_ the best thing. I couldn't watch for dangers like they could.

The woman seemed to notice me heading her way, and almost on instinct, she began packing up her things. I didn't let that stop me from sitting down at the chair at her table, didn't let that stop me from smiling.

"Hi." I could hear her breaths grow shallow, hear the pulse against her veins as her heart pounded and raced all at once. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanted to talk to you."

The woman swallowed, but her eyes focused on me, tightening. "I have nothing to say to you."

"What?"

"I know who you are," she said, and the skin of my arm began to crawl, the hairs rising. It was a single sentence, but it was a sentence that had my blood freezing inside my veins. "You're the hybrid."

I did my best to not let the fear show, reminding myself that witches could sense vampires. Bonnie had never shown signs of knowing what Tyler was, but maybe that was because his werewolf side was dormant.

I didn't know how she knew, but it didn't matter much. She _did_ know, but we had things to do, people to find. For the sake of my kids, I had to pretend that I wasn't afraid.

"Uh, technically, Klaus gets mad when people call me that," I informed her, but I did my best to smile. "Look, I'm not here to talk about me. I'm looking for someone, someone here in New Orleans last we heard."

The mention of the word "we" had her gaze wandering, towards the three Mikaelson brothers who were still standing where I had left them as far as I knew. "You should choose better company."

That made me smile, despite the darkness her words really implied. "They're a bit rough around the edges, but they're not so bad."

She looked back to me suddenly, and body shifted back, away from me. "I can't help you."

"You don't even know what I'm asking."

She shook her head. "I can't help you find anyone. Witches don't talk out of school in the Quarter. The vampire won't allow it. Those are the rules. I don't break Marcel's rules."

"Marcel?" It was a shortened version of the name Marcellus, and I didn't believe in coincidences, not in the middle of everything going on when everything was very obviously happening for a reason. "That's actually exactly who I need to find. Do you know where he is?"

"I do." She pressed her lips, and I wondered if I noticed her muscles loosening. She seemed more relaxed, maybe at the idea that she didn't have to use magic. I didn't really know what she meant by Marcel's rules, but I imagined magic had something to do with it. "He likes to hang out in a bar, few blocks over that way—at least during the day. You can usually find him there when nothing else is going on."

I put my hands on the table and gave her a large smile, the best kind smile that I could. It was hard to say if she believed it, and I suppose I didn't blame her if she didn't, but I meant it. I didn't want her to be afraid of me, wanted her to know that I was truly grateful. "Great. Thanks."

Before I could actually stand up, the woman reached across to grab my wrists. I wasn't afraid, but I wondered if Kol was. If she couldn't do magic, she had nothing on me, and if she was as afraid of Marcel as she seemed to be, I figured breaking the rules was punishable by death.

Her eyes hardened when I looked at her, her lips pursed. "Be careful. Marcel doesn't trust new people, especially new vampires. He has his people, and he has his inner circle. If you're not one of his people, you best stay back."

"Why do you care?" I asked, without thinking much about it. "You know what I am."

"Children need a mother."

I couldn't breathe, and the fear from before was only amplified. I could feel it hardening more than just the blood in my veins, moving to solidify the organ that was pumping out the blood. I wondered if it was even beating anymore.

I tried to shift past the fear, to lean back in the seat in front of her table and simple stare at her. "How did you know that?"

"The spirits talk," she said, and though her words dripped with darkness beyond what I was prepared for, she wore a genuine smile, a _soft_ smile. "The Ancestors talk. I don't think there's a witch in New Orleans who doesn't know that."

"What?" I shook my head, like it might change what she said, but my head wasn't the only thing shaking. My hands were trembling—my hands, lips, _body_. "No. Don't-Don't—"

"The witches of New Orleans have no quarrel with you or your children," she assured me, which was a lot more comfort than I wondered if it should've been. "We won't do anything to hurt them. You don't have to be afraid."

I knew that her words shouldn't have comforted me, so I tried not to let them. Instead, I focused on what I had come here for, trying to remember back to the plan we had put into place.

Find out where Marcel was. Check.

I stood from the table, forcing myself to swallow the lump growing in my throat, and I attempted to smile at her. "Thank you for your answers. I appreciate it."

I didn't give her a chance to say anything, didn't pay attention to what she might be doing in response to what I said. Instead, I spun on my wedge heels and headed across the street, back to the safety that I felt surrounded by the Mikaelson brothers.

Kol didn't hesitate to grab onto me, to pull me onto the sidewalk and put himself between the woman and me. I didn't know what he was doing, but he didn't say anything, only began walking towards the direction the woman had sent us. None of them even seemed to consider the idea that this might be a set up of sorts, or maybe they were just trying to get away from the witch.

"Let's get this over with," Kol murmured, barely even glancing ahead towards his brothers with his eyes focusing in on me. "We need to get out of New Orleans as quickly as we can."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

He let out a breath, but I couldn't tell exactly what was going through his head with nothing but frantic and scattered emotions burning at the forefront. "Because she wasn't a nice woman, Darcy. You didn't see the way she watched you walk away."

"She said they had no quarrel with us," I reminded him.

He suddenly stopped walking, turning himself towards me and placing a single hand across my cheek. Through the chaos in his eyes, there was something warm, something that burned so brightly I could feel it melt the fear away, feel it soothe me in the way that only he could.

"I love you," he murmured, and his words were soft, despite everything else. "I really do. You make me feel like such a monster sometimes, but Darcy, I need you to look past the goodness in your heart and understand what that woman just said to you. Remember how you were afraid? It was your mind reacting past your heart."

He only stopped to say those words, only stopped to both comfort and scare me. My mind was racing, spinning, but his words were sinking in.

Klaus was right, wasn't he? I wasn't meant to survive an eternity. Kol ensured that I would, no matter what, but if it wasn't for that, _would_ I survive? The link to his life was the only thing that would keep me alive.

What did that mean for my kids?

* * *

 **A/N: I've almost finished writing part 2, and then it will be on to the outline. :) I may wait a couple days between posting the last few chapters simply because I'm not sure how long it will take to get an outline, plus all the watching the _Originals_ I have to do. I've started, but I do have a kid and all. I can't always watch when I'd like.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	34. 33: Distraction

"Drivin' through the city with me,  
Just watching you glow.  
I'm in the passenger seat. You're in control.  
It's on you now.  
Even better every day, I swear.  
Maybe it's a little unfair.  
Baby, I'm starstruck by you.  
Didn't know we'd get so far,  
And it's only the start.  
Baby, you got me worried.  
Your love is scaring me.  
No one has ever cared for me  
As much as you do.  
Ooh, yeah, I need you here."

 _Scary Love_ : The Neighbourhood

* * *

The bar was loud, full of life that I didn't imagine it would be as a popular vampire hangout. Kol had once told me that daylight rings weren't a well-known secret amongst vampires. It was their mother who gave them theirs, with the help of her friend Ayana—an ancestor of Bonnie's—but for the longest time, they were the only ones to have them, aside from their closest friends.

Katherine changed that. He didn't say _how_ she found out about the daylight rings, but before she came to Mystic Falls, she already had her necklace. She already had a witch who was able to make the rings for the Salvatore brothers.

Klaus mentioned that Marcel would have one, as he had one made for him himself, but the bar seemed full of vampires. They might not all have been vampires, but surely Marcel wasn't here alone, not if he was as paranoid as the witch said that he was.

Kol took just a moment to peek in through the window of the bar before pulling us both backwards, away from eyes that might see. It was just long enough to tell me that Marcel was the man on stage singing karaoke. It took a lot of effort for him to simply tell me that and _not_ grab onto me. He had been uncomfortable from the moment that Elijah suggested this plan.

It probably didn't help what I wore. After leaving the airport, we went ahead and got hotel rooms for us all, giving us all time to freshen up, though we had moved quickly. Klaus suggested wearing something appealing to the eye, without going _too_ overboard. If it was too obvious, he might realize what I was trying to do, or he might not show interest.

Kol barely let me out of the room, only did when I reminding him that _nothing_ was going to happen. I didn't really know if I'd even flirt, just serve as a distraction so they could evaluate the room.

I also pointed out the pink stiletto boots I wore, instead of red. Paired with a white lace camisole top that fit me like a glove, a black sheer top to block some of the February wind, and a flared grey skirt, I looked appealing enough that it didn't look obvious that I was trying to catch someone's attention.

Kol was satisfied when I showed him the pink boots, promising that I would save red for only him. He still didn't _like_ the plan, but he had grown to accept it.

Now that it was here, I wondered if he was actually gonna let me go, but he made no move to stop me as I grabbed onto the door knob.

I didn't have to impress him, didn't have to avidly gain his affection. All I had to do was grab his attention long enough for them to evaluate the dangers.

 _You can do this, Darcy_.

I made it into the bar just as he finished his song, as he jumped off the bar and the room full of people cheered him on. His smile was larger than life, and he _seemed_ kind. From looking him in the eye, I wouldn't even believe he was a vampire.

Yet he was. He had somehow taken over New Orleans and scared the witches so badly that they were afraid to use magic.

The best course of action was to go to the bar, to get a drink close to him but not close enough that it looked as if I was standing next to him. That's what I did, doing my best to catch the bartender's attention.

 _Shit_ , what was I gonna do? If he asked for an ID, I didn't even think I had one. If he was working in a bar full of vampires, he was either a vampire himself or on vervain, so it wasn't like I could just compel him. I _could_ , but not without raising any suspicions about it all.

My fears were settled at the sight of the very man I had been hoping to catch the eye of approaching, and his eyes were very noticeably taking in the sight of me. I really hoped Kol couldn't see what was going on directly because he wasn't exactly the best with his anger issues, and I had never _seen_ him get jealous, but I didn't imagine he did well with it all.

The smile that was far too friendly for a vampire running an empire turned charming as he approached my side, leaning against the side of the bar.

"I haven't seen you around here before."

Charming voice to go along with it? I understood why Klaus considered him family. He had all the traits of a Mikaelson without actually being a Mikaelson.

"Yeah." I gave him the best smile I could, hoping like hell it was flirty. I let my eyes roam across him, seeing but not really looking, but it might appear like I was interested anyways. "I'm very new in town. I, uh, was walking through the Quarter, and this lady approached me and warned me about your rules. So I thought it'd be nice to hear them from the man in charge himself."

His smile didn't falter, and the glow in his eyes didn't fade, even with the mention of his rules, with the mention that I knew who he was. I guess it wasn't hard to figure out how I might've known, with the town full of vampires under his control.

"That sounds like you plan on sticking around," he said.

"This place is charming." It was easier to use truths to carry me forward. Even as an Original vampire, I wasn't the best at lying yet. I could do it if I absolutely had to, but in most situations, it didn't come easy for me, at least not yet. "I've been going all kinds of places, looking for one that I wanted to stick around because what can you do with an eternity? Sit still?"

"That would be very boring," he agreed.

I didn't let my smile fade like it normally might have, but the bartender approached me now. "You know what? I think I'll go on a limb today. I'll take a glass of tequila platinum."

"Wow." Marcel laughed and rubbed his hand across his mouth. "Bring this woman her tequila, James, and do not dare charge her. It's on the house."

"Ooh." I smirked a him a bit, allowing my teeth to scrape across the brown-red lipstick I wore. I was grateful that this stuff didn't come off so easy, not like the stuff I had bought for later tonight. "I should've come to New Orleans sooner."

"You should have," he said, and he leaned closer to me a bit, relaxing his posture in a way that made most people relax. "Though I will admit, I didn't peg you as the type to drink hard liquor."

I shrugged. "Well, when you're blood cravings are a bit out of control, you kinda learn to, you know, choke it down until it becomes good."

"Fair enough." He finished off whatever was in his glass and set it on the bar. "If you stick around, I'll show you how things work in this town. The rules are very simple, very basic, and I'm sure you'll fit right in."

"I'm sure I will." I let my teeth noticeably sink in a bit more, with no shame stopping me from grazing his body with my eyes again. Since it was all fake, I wasn't held back by the same restrictions I might've been if it was real, an actual conversation without my boyfriend standing somewhere in the room. "I'm Darcy, by the way."

"Marcel." His smile widened at my obvious flirting, but the light in his eyes had been replaced by something that almost looked like recognition. "You look a bit familiar. I won't lie."

I was grateful to have something truthful to say, enough that I let out a breath of a laugh. "I get that a lot."

"Have we met before?"

I shook my head. "I don't think that's possible. This is my first time in New Orleans, and I'm still pretty new to this vampire thing."

"Huh." All pleasantness faded from existence, however, the more he stared at me, the more he seemed to recognize the features of my face. "Does the name Katerina Petrova mean anything to you?"

I nodded. "Some bitchy vampire I met once, although she goes by Katherine Pierce now. I try to avoid her because she's—"

His eyes hardened immediately, and I knew things were taking a bad turn. "Your doppelgänger."

I didn't let it ruin my mood, let it stop me from smiling at the man. "Yeah, well, technically speaking, she's not _my_ doppelgänger." I pointed towards my two different colored eyes, as the most obvious example of our differences, and he only briefly noticed because his eyes darted towards the bartender for a moment. "Just my sister's. I'm the other one, the one that's far less important."

I felt the glass sent my way, but it was darker than what I had ordered. Marcel noticed my hesitance and smiled again, and even his eyes grew warm again.

"That one's on me, as a welcome to New Orleans."

I picked up the glass and stared at it, taking the in strong scent of the whiskey and bringing the glass to my lips. His eyes weren't watching me, instead looking towards the bartender to order a drink of his own, but if the drink that _wasn't_ what I ordered didn't make it obvious enough, his eyes away from me did.

You can't hide vervain in clear liquor.

I set the cup back on the bar and bit my lip. "Thank you, but I'm not a whiskey girl."

He laughed now, a kind and warm laugh that wasn't fair for someone actually pretty mean. "That's not your average whiskey. I insist."

"Why? Because it's got vervain in it?"

I definitely surprised him, if his eyebrows rising up on his forehead didn't make that obvious enough. He stopped moving, stopped trying to appear casual, and despite the fact that I had caught him red handed, he smiled. "For someone new to this, you're smart."

"I've seen some shit." I let out a deep sigh and pushed the drink away from me a bit, in a way that appeared harmless, and I took a moment to look at Marcel but focus on the vampires behind him. They weren't exactly subtle, moving towards him the moment they noticed this conversation turned sour. One was particularly close, standing almost right behind him. "I really wanted to do this the nice way, but you just tried to vervain me. Now, I'm not your average vampire, so it doesn't actually bother me like it would, say, that guy."

I used my fingers to flip the drink backwards, hard enough that the liquid contents inside splashed on the guy behind Marcel, and I saw the vervain burn the skin of his face, the sensitive skin of his eyes, almost immediately. He was brought down, though he was a bit of a trooper. He barely even moaned as he fell to the bar, barely made a sound as it burned into his eyes.

Marcel's grip on my wrist was strong, but it didn't matter how old he was. The fact that I was an Original vampire made me stronger than all vampires, except maybe the actual Original vampires, since they _did_ have a thousand years on me. "You shouldn't have done that."

I tried not to laugh, but seriously, it was impossible to do. At this point, I didn't like Marcel all that much, mostly because he tried to vervain an innocent bystander, so all I could picture was Kol, the way he would react to seeing him not only try to vervain me, but also grab onto my arm, with a threat in his eyes that told a story he had no way to make possible.

"Oh no, hun," I said. " _You_ shouldn't have done _that_."

I didn't expect Kol to actually appear, but he did, putting himself in the small distance between Marcel and me almost as if on cue. He had to push Marcel back away from me to do so, but he didn't mind that at all.

The rage in Marcel's eyes only grew brighter at the sight of Kol, and I remembered what Kol had told me. Marcel was family to his siblings, more family than Kol had been, so he hated him for a long time. It was a mutual hatred, however, because of all of the things Kol had done.

If there had been any hope of mending the relationship, it was probably gone now.

"You're probably the last face I ever expected to see here," Marcel snapped, and his lips pressed. "Who let you out?"

"Darcy did." I was a bit grateful to hear Elijah's voice, which meant that Kol hadn't completely just ruined the plan. He had been given permission, as neither Elijah nor Klaus looked angry as they approached. Instead, they seemed relatively relaxed, all things considered.

Marcel's eyes left the two approaching Originals, over to find me. "You have seen some shit, haven't you?"

I gave him the best smile I could and grabbed onto Kol's arm, to force his gaze back down to me. "I'm okay. Don't kill him. We need his help."

Marcel scoffed. "I'm not helping him."

"Don't help him," Klaus agreed. "Help me."

Hearing Klaus speak up seemed to surprise Marcel, enough that he forgot to even focus on Kol and me. I didn't think about trying to calm Kol down, but should I have done that? He wouldn't hold my hand in the streets, so he obviously didn't want people to realize who I was to him.

"Help you?" Marcel asked. "What could you possibly need my help with?"

I watched Klaus approach Marcel, watched his impassive expression morph into something more genuine. I didn't imagine that seeing Marcel alive was easy for him, since he had thought him dead, but still, his smile was very real as it tugged at the corners of his lips. The glow in his eyes was _real._

"I need you to give me the paragon diamond."

* * *

 **A/N: So I'm working on the last chapter of this story. Still have to finish the epilogue, but I've already gotten through chapter 5 or 6 of the outline for part 3. Let me just say, things pick up _quickly_ in part 3, mostly because there's just so much that happens that there's really not time to slowly get into it all.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy! :)**


	35. 34: Valentine's Day

"I know I have my moments,  
And at times I'm hard to be around.  
I get impatient when you're getting dressed.  
It's just I thought the first one looked the best.

You're beautiful,  
More than I deserve,  
So listen close  
To these one, two, three, four words.

So please keep loving me  
Because our hearts speak fluently.  
Wherever I go, whatever I do,  
The map on my heart leads to you."

 _Please Keep Loving Me_ : James TW

* * *

"So let me get this straight."

I finished off the glass of tequila I had _finally_ been given, without vervain or anything that might piss Kol off even more than he already was.

Though I drank the rest of the rather stout liquor, my eyes were focused on Kol. It was different than usual, as I liked to look at him most any time he was in the room, but this time, I was studying him, trying to understand how I needed to be so that I might be able to protect my kids.

Right now, this was the Original vampire Kol, the callous man who didn't think twice about taking a life, especially with everything that was currently at stake. He hadn't killed anyone yet, but if things went South, I wasn't going to be surprised if he did.

Marcel's statement hadn't been directed at Kol, instead Klaus, who he actually leaned a bit closer to, with his hard gaze focused on him, completely throwing of the warmth of his smile. "You want me to give you the paragon diamond so your brother can make a gold dagger? A century ago, you had me keep it from him for that very reason."

Klaus' smile was nothing if not pleasant, and his eyes were a bit brighter than I was used to as well. This Marcel must've been really special to him. "Yes, well, there are reasons this must be done."

Marcel nodded, but he scoffed through his smile. "And you used a pretty girl to distract me _why_?"

Klaus simply gestured across the table towards his younger brother, who was only tightly staring at Marcel the more he heard him speak. "Well, Kol wanted to come in and grab you, bleed you dry of vervain, and compel you to do what we needed, but we're family. Couldn't let that happen, and Darcy happens to have a soft spot for anything that breathes."

I didn't expect to hear him laugh, in the middle of our conversation that had moved outside of the bar, to a more private place within Marcel's home—one that Kol said had actually been theirs at one point. We were in a much smaller room, with only a couple of Marcel's men that had daylight rings.

He had explained to Klaus, who was curious as to why he had shared the secret with anyone, that they were just his closest people, the inner circle— _family_. It seemed answer enough for Klaus, and he had moved onto the reason we were in New Orleans to begin with. He needed the diamond from Marcel.

Marcel's gaze shifted to me, but the smile that echoed from his laughter remained. "You picked the wrong family to associate with."

"Yeah, I'm adjusting." I didn't keep my gaze on Marcel long, as I had more studying to do, but Kol's eyes had tightened further by the time I stared back at him.

I didn't know if it was because Marcel of what Marcel had said to me or if he had said anything to me at all. It was becoming very apparent that Kol didn't like the idea of anyone even talking to me, much less flirting with me the way that he had.

He let out a sigh and nodded. "Okay. I'll go get the diamond. It's just a couple rooms over."

Before he could stand up, a tight lipped smile formed on Kol's lips. "You wouldn't happen to know if there was a remaining Claire witch, would you?"

The darkness that pushed out any pleasantness in Marcel's stare was plenty of answer to that question, without words even having to be said. He either knew there was one, or he had been close to one that had died.

"Why do you need to know about a Claire witch?"

"Well, to make the gold dagger, we need to get into the tomb, which was sealed away by a Claire witch so that only a Claire witch could open it," Kol pointed out, not at all bothered by the dark undertones of Marcel's question. "Therefore why I need a Claire witch."

I had to admit, I was a bit surprised to have Kol answer him, and it was only natural to see Marcel stiffen with it as well, the surprise making itself apparent even past the darkness that loomed anytime he even glanced at Kol.

Was that how he would've responded a century ago, when they knew one another? I didn't imagine it was since Kol didn't normally enjoy giving answers if he felt it unnecessary for someone to have them.

Marcel studied Kol for a moment but eventually looked away, towards Klaus. "I'll have a Claire witch open it, but I take her to open it alone, sometime in the night. We'll have it open for you by morning. No one will see her." His gaze shifted back to Kol, darkening just a bit. "Especially you."

I didn't expect Kol to actually laugh, but he held his hands up. "I wouldn't hurt her. Mary-Alice was my friend, if you don't remember."

Marcel nodded. "Yeah, until she stabbed you in the back and sealed the tomb."

"Well, from the way I see it, Klaus and his witches locking her in the Dowager cottage for the rest of her days was punishment enough." He let his smirk show, in both his eyes and across his lips. "I would never kill the last within a bloodline. I don't much like killing witches at all."

"Forgive me for not taking any chances." He reached a hand over to slap down onto Klaus' shoulder, and his smile was immediately pleasant, as it had been when we met in the bar. "I'll be right back with the diamond, and then the tomb will be open by morning. In the meantime, why don't the four of you enjoy your stay in New Orleans?"

Marcel didn't leave the room alone. The three men that had come into the room with him, to ensure nothing happened to him—not that they actually had a chance in hell of stopping whatever might've been going to happen—followed him out, and for the first time since we met Marcel at the bar, the four of us were alone again.

I let out a breath of relief and glanced at Kol, who was already looking at me from the moment I made a sound. "Did I do good?"

His smirk was softer, though a bit more devious, and a breath passed through his nose. "My favorite part was when you threw the vervain at the guy. That was fun."

"He was about to kick the door in when he thought you were going to drink it," Klaus added on, with a smirk of his own.

"You did incredibly well, Darcy," Elijah assured me, ignoring all talks about the vervain that I had thrown on the guy—one of the ones who had come into the room with Marcel, actually. "We underestimated his loyalty to Klaus. Last he heard, Klaus was waiting for a doppelgänger so he might break his curse. I didn't realize he would notice that you _were_ a doppelgänger from an old picture alone."

None of us expected the door to open back as quickly as it did, with Marcel standing there holding a rather massive diamond. They had called it a perfect paragon diamond, but I hadn't thought of what it might look like.

It was like the diamonds you see used as props in movies, except perfectly clear with stunning clarity. Marcel handed it directly to Klaus, without even looking towards Kol.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing." I didn't expect Klaus to stand up and hug Marcel the way that he did, but Marcel seemed to expect it, and he matched the gesture without tension. "We'll have to catch up some other time. Maybe a couple decades from now?"

The rest of us took that as our cue to leave, ignoring the confusion on Marcel's expression at Klaus' mention of a couple of decades from the time. Most would say sooner than that, but Klaus didn't.

It wasn't hard to figure out, if he was thinking about exactly what it was we were doing. We were getting the stuff to make a gold dagger, so obviously, there was something going on that required Klaus to be daggered.

There wasn't, but Klaus had given himself up to save the twins. He had offered himself.

I didn't let myself get lost in that thought, as the four of us were leaving Marcel's place. It was brisk movement, at speeds that humans could move, but it had been a long time since I had been so grateful to get out of a building, back outside and into the fresh New Orleans air.

Everything smelled delightful, with the salt from the ocean nearby mixed with the spices of Cajun food at its finest. I had already passed three restaurants that claimed to have the best gumbo in all of New Orleans, and I couldn't wait to taste some for myself.

I practically danced to stand in front of the three Mikaelson brothers, giving them a large smile that had a different reaction amongst each of them. It almost annoyed Klaus, but not so much that he could stop the small smile that started to form. Elijah seemed to enjoy seeing me so happy and carefree, despite the shit going on all around us. He called me a breath of fresh air.

Of course Kol was absolutely shining at the sight of my smile, so much that his smile almost matched mine.

"Okay, so, what now?"

"Now we wait until morning," he said. "While we could've protested further and started an argument, I figure it's best to leave things as they are for now. No need for unnecessary violence."

"Wow."

Klaus only smirked. "Just because you have to kill to survive does not mean that you have to kill everyone in your path. You'll learn soon enough, little witch."

That was the first time anyone had ever called me that, but something about it almost seemed endearing. Maybe it was hearing it come from Klaus, who had said up until recently that I doomed myself to die before I could live an eternity, that made it seem endearing.

I wasn't just "love," as he called just about any female he came across. I was "little witch."

"I think the best course of action now is to go to our hotel rooms and lay low for the rest of the evening," Elijah spoke up, clearly not surprised to hear Klaus call me this. Kol didn't even flinch, so it must've just been me to even notice it. "It would be the best way to ensure nothing happens."

"Fair enough." I turned back away from the three to stare at the place around me, and it was hard to imagine just locking myself away from it all. They had stated very plainly that this wasn't a vacation, that we would have to be extremely careful, but I _wanted_ to be free.

I hadn't been out of the house since turning, and I was in New Orleans. I hadn't thought much about visiting it, but now that I was here, I couldn't understand _why_ I hadn't thought about it. It was marvelous. Everything was so alive, even knowing that something much darker rested beneath the surface of it.

"Hang on." I turned to Kol, and my brow furrowed. "I promised Damon there was something I would do if we ever came to New Orleans."

"Already on it, love," he assured me, and he pulled his phone from his back pocket. "I wrote down the street this Charlotte woman is supposed to be on. Corner of Bourbon and Dumaine."

"Assuming she's still there," Klaus said. "With things the way they are in town, I can't imagine a sired vampire is still alive and in the same place she was what? Seventy years ago?"

"Well, I promised Damon to help him." I took Kol's phone from his hands to look at the exact spelling of the streets and handed it back. "He's helped me plenty."

Kol's eyes tightened. "Yes, well, I'm only doing this because I love you."

I folded my arms over my chest, my head tilting to the side a bit. "Do you hate Damon because you found out he was the one who helped me get out of Mystic Falls?"

I watched his jaw tighten, his cheeks sinking in as if he was sucking them a bit. "No, I actually didn't know that, but it makes me want to do this even less."

"He's my friend," I reminded him. "And from the way I've always foreseen things, my future brother-in-law."

"You would wish that on your sister?" Klaus asked. "You're the worst sister ever."

"Excuse me, but I made a pros and cons spreadsheet." I couldn't help but wink at Kol, who lost some of his anger. "Besides, there can be no one better for someone than their soulmate. Maybe you'll understand someday."

"I hate you." Klaus glared over at Kol. "You couldn't have picked someone less annoying? I'm afraid her positivity and kindness might rub off somehow, and before you know it, we'll all be joining the Peace Corps."

I began laughing wildly, like a girl free from the fears of the world, free from the darkness of the world—even if I was now part of that darkness. I felt weightless, and I found myself walking without direction, without actually knowing where I was going.

My eyes remained on the Mikaelson brothers, however, and the two who had become family over time simply watched with repressed smiles, with kindness that came with watching a family member feel this free. They must've experienced this at some point in their long lives, even if just for a short time.

Kol, however . . . he continued to surprise, continued to have expressions locked away in his arsenal. I didn't know a person could look so bright, yet he stood here, looking more beautiful than the skies around us, the sky of a setting sun. Not even the lovely pinks and oranges, nor the deep purple, could compare to how stunning he was.

This was my forever, a forever by his side and exploring everything that the world had to offer.

Elijah and Klaus seemed to have a different thought process from me, and they didn't start to follow. Instead, they both dismissed themselves, stating that the two of us would be more than enough to compel this vampire to turn her humanity off and then back on, so it was safest if they just went back to the hotel.

The idea of being alone with Kol, of exploring New Orleans alone with Kol . . . this was seriously how things would be forever, wouldn't it? Sure, we'd have the twins later in life, and we'd occasionally go for family vacations with his siblings and mine, but we had forever, forever to take random trips with just the two of us—as soon as the madness with the twins was over anyways.

The light in Kol's eyes never faded, even as he watched his brother's leave, but it seemed to shine brighter when he looked back at me. "Bourbon Street's this way, love."

"Right." I skipped back over to him, and I was surprised when he reached out to grab me, to grab onto my hand and lace his fingers with mine seamlessly. "Done hiding?"

"I think it's rather senseless now, don't you?" He pulled me a bit closer, and his eyes lit up with a deviousness I could _not_ wait to get alone with. "I'm rather horrible at it."

"You are," I agreed, and I splayed my fingers across his chest, taking in the touch of the cotton button-up that felt more like silk. "And I'm sure I'll regret saying this, but it was kinda nice when Marcel grabbed my wrist the way that he did. I had the thought, 'Kol is gonna kill him.' I don't know." My eyes studied him further, taking in the way his smirk widened with my words. "Something about knowing that you're protective of me. I like it."

"I'm glad to hear that." He brought my hand up to his lips and pressed them softly against it, with the arrogance of the smirk still shining brighter than almost all else. "Because I will always be this way. I'm afraid it's something you unknowingly agreed to when you made the horrible mistake of falling in love with me."

"Ooh, a hidden perk."

"You will regret that, I'm sure." He let go of my hand so his arms could snake around my waist. "You have no idea how badly I want to break all the rules and show you New Orleans, to explore the changes and see what's different from the last time I was here."

"So let's do it," I suggested. "We can be careful, right?"

He sighed. "Things are . . . good with my brothers right now. We're at a good place, and to just ignore their warnings? I don't know."

"You're right." I leaned forward a bit so I could reach his lips with mine, placing a simple kiss against them. It would've been easy to get carried away with it, but we were in the middle of a busy city. It was just rude. "So let's do this for my friend who is more like a brother, and then the two of us will go back to our room and have our own kind of fun."

"I like the sound of that."

New Orleans was nothing that I expected it to be, but when thinking about places I wanted to travel someday, it never occurred to me that New Orleans even existed. That was a shame, too, because New Orleans was beautiful, amazing. It was somewhere everyone should go once, if for nothing else to just see it.

There was history, magic—literally.

Bourbon Street was pretty much one of the main attractions of New Orleans, with everything filling it up and tourists everywhere. Somehow, I didn't feel the urge to just rip everyone's throat out as we passed, and that had me feeling even freer than I already did.

Finding where Bourbon Street and Dumaine Street intersected barely took any time, and we passed New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum on the way. Damon had described her as cute, brunette, big eyes, so I only hoped that we could find her.

She wasn't where he said she would be, but we were also looking for someone who was walking around counting bricks, looking completely out of place. We weren't taking into account something very important to the sire bond, at least from what we had learned about the one I had for that brief few days.

She was doing this for Damon, because she loved him and because he asked her to.

I pulled my phone out and called a number that I wasn't supposed to call. Kol was curious, but he didn't stop me, even after he heard Damon answer with a, "Please tell me this is a cute doppelgänger with two different colored eyes."

"Hey, Damon, it's me." I glanced around at the people around us, looking for any sign of a vampire who might've heard me say that, heard me say his name. "Tell me more about Charlotte."

"Damon?"

The voice was soft, worn with time, but it was unmistakable, not so far down the road from me. She was a woman in the middle of the crowd, dressed as one should be in modern days, but her hair was wild, barely touched with a brush. She looked tired, like she barely slept at all.

"Charlotte."

Kol reached out to grab onto her shoulders, to hold her in place, and she tried to shake him. She tried getting him off of her, but she had no way of knowing who he was, _what_ he was.

"Charlotte, these people are my friends." Damon took a deep breath. "I want you to relax and let them do whatever they want, okay? They won't hurt you."

"Okay."

I hung up the phone and slid it in my back pocket, and I stared into her eyes. "Charlotte? I want you to turn off your humanity."

I watched it click, watched the switch flip in the ways it had for Elena and Stefan. Her muscles relaxed, her face emptied, and she was a vampire without humanity.

"Now I want you to turn it back on."

Just like that, she was back to the woman she had been, minus her sire bond to Damon. She was the vampire she was meant to be, no sire bond getting in the way.

"Damon . . . he left me here."

"Yes." I pressed my lips together. "Damon is a bit of a dick, but I want you to remember that you were friends. I don't want you to remember that your life has been lonely and sad. I want you to remember him fondly, but I want you to move on. I want you to find your own life for yourself, but most importantly, I want you to forget seeing me or my friend."

She smiled, and something about that made me feel good. It hadn't occurred to me until she started to walk away what I had actually just done, compelled her to forget her pain . . . but I did.

That was the same thing Elena had done to Jeremy, to make him forget Vicki. Had I just done that to her?

"Well, look at you."

I rubbed my fingers along my forehead. "Did I just screw up?"

"No." He reached forward to grab onto me, to wrap his arms around me and pull me into his comfort. "You made her forget the loneliness."

"Elena compelled Jeremy—"

"Yes, she compelled Jeremy to forget that the woman he loved had died," he cut me off, before I could try to compare the situations out-loud. "She didn't compel him to forget how lonely he was. She took away an entire person's ending. You simply made her forget the fear of the past seventy years."

I closed my eyes. "I don't know. Is it different?"

"I believe so, but I don't think you will." His grip on me tightened, just moments before his lips pressed against the top of my head. "Come on, love. Let's get back to the hotel room. I believe we have some fun of our own to get started with."

"Mmm. Who's insatiable now?"

"You." There was a smirk growing wild across his lips when my head snapped up to look at him, but all it did was ignite the fire in me that had been repressed by everything else we had to do. "And me."

The more we traveled through New Orleans, the easier it was to remember that this was Valentine's Day, our first Valentine's Day. There were reminders on some of the windows, people holding balloons or flowers. One woman even walked through carrying a giant teddy bear, with a ribbon wrapped around its neck.

It was a bit much, but it was cute. Kol didn't even seem to notice the things around him.

Today was nothing like how I expected my first Valentine's Day with someone to actually be my valentine to go, yet it was fun. It was dangerous and terrifying on the surface, but underneath it all, it was a wild adventure that only told the sweetest stories of the future. My future— _our_ future.

The two of us made it back to our room not long after that. Ironically, we had chosen a hotel on Bourbon Street, so it didn't take long to get back to our room. If I had done all of this as a human, I probably would've died in the stilettos I wore, but as a vampire, it didn't bother me at all.

Kol slid from his jacket effortlessly, but his eyes weren't immediately on me. As he crossed the room, over to sit on the side of the bed, his eyes were locked on his phone.

I didn't have to know what he was looking at. The softness in his eyes, in every piece of his face that I could see, told me what he was looking at—the one picture of the twins he had on his phone. He said that it was dangerous, that he couldn't flood his phone with pictures of his children or even me like he wanted to do. His phone was locked in every way possible, but he still didn't like having pictures, just in case someone we ran into in the future happened to know how to bypass all of that.

Still, there was _one_ —one picture of the twins and one picture of me, safely locked away in a private folder that you had to have a password to get into. I didn't even know you could do that until he showed me.

He missed them. Of course we had known that we would miss them, that this would be hard on us both, but seeing it now, seeing him staring at the picture of the twins, I had to remind myself that I would look stupid if I cried right now.

His breaths became uneven, and I knew it was overwhelming him. He hadn't had much time to slow down and think about it all, but he _had_ come to terms with it. He was a father, to some of the world's most beautiful babies ever, after everything he had done, after all the hurt he had caused. It was no secret that he didn't think he deserved what he had been given, but he was overwhelmed when he realized that he got it anyways.

I knew that he deserved this, his own piece of happiness, and I loved being able to be a part of that. Klaus had called love blind when I said that Kol was a good person, and maybe that was a stretch. I saw good in him, though, good that even he didn't see. It was hidden behind a thousand years of bad, so of course others couldn't see it.

I knew who he could be, the things he could do, and somehow, I had fallen in love with that man. It was impossible to say that it was _all_ I had fallen in love with. The darkness was very much a part of Kol, and as much as I hated death and seeing suffering, I couldn't lie and pretend that I didn't love every part of him. I did, for better or worse.

I slipped out of the stilettos and made my way across the room, climbing into his lap and ripping his drifting thoughts back to something more. It wasn't selfish. He was about to get upset, to remember all the things he had done, and there was no point. It wasn't like he could change them.

After tossing his phone to the side, his hands melted onto my back, pulling my body closer to his on instinct.

I bit down on my bottom lip, though it didn't suppress the smile that grew. "I know we were up all night last night—"

He cut me off with a soft laugh, a _real_ laugh without any darkness hiding behind the light-hearted sound. "We probably shouldn't do that again. We've got a lot to do in the morning, you especially."

"Oh, look at you." I wrapped my arms around his neck, resting them on his shoulders. "Being the voice of reason and responsibility."

He liked where this was going, loved having me against him like this, but there was a softness lingering, one that had nothing to do with me—aside from the fact that I had brought them into the world. It was the twins, lingering in his thoughts for a few more moments.

"Must be the father in me showing itself." He took a deep breath, and it was suddenly gone, incinerated by the flames of desire. "I didn't even know that was there."

"I don't wanna stay up _all_ night," I promised. "Just . . . a good bit of it."

"Whatever you would like, Darcy Gilbert." The smile was softer than I thought possible, with the fire burning through him, but maybe it was the love showing through it all. "I'm all yours."

Hearing that said . . . it shouldn't have gotten to me the way that it did. Of course I knew that he was mine, and it had pretty soundly been established that this was a forever thing. We couldn't just get out of it because the other pissed us off or hurt us. I didn't imagine anything might drive us completely apart, but even if it _did_ , we'd just end up together again.

There's this whole that only soulmates can feel, and life will never be whole without them. I didn't like the sound of an empty life, so I had no desire to live it.

But it was the first time _he_ had said it, at least out-loud. Hearing it swept something more powerful than the desire. It was warm, more so than even the fire, but it had me going down the same road, the same naked and glorious road.

His eyebrows rose. "Surely you knew that already, love."

"I did." I slid one hand up his neck, latching onto some hair at the nape of his neck, and his body jolted a bit, moving closer to me. "You've just never said it out-loud before."

"Well, that wasn't right proper of me." He didn't try to hide the smile that formed. "I love you, Darcy, and I will love you until I cease to exist. I am yours, completely, and I will always be yours. I hope you have no intentions of living your life with anyone else. I will probably just kill them."

"Oh my gosh." My eyes widened. "Kol! I don't, but geez! Seriously?"

"Yes." He smirked wildly. "You don't think I'd let another man have you, do you? You're mine, and I intend to prove that however I must."

Maybe it was dangerous for him to talk that way, but deep down, I knew it wasn't true. He might kill some dates here and there, horrible as that may be, but in the end, if I truly wanted to move on with my life . . . I think he would let me. I think he would give me that chance, just because he loved me.

It didn't matter, though. It was all talk that would never come to light because when I removed that dagger from his chest, I awoke something eternal in both of us.

"You're the worst, but you're mine, so that's what matters." I pressed my lips against his quickly, and he was not happy when I pulled away. "Give me a minute."

I climbed out of his lap, despite his confusion and protests, and I used my vampire speed to get away. Into the bathroom of the hotel room, I had to quickly lock the door before he opened it back up.

Using more than the physical lock to keep it shut, Kol couldn't even shake the knob as he stood outside of it, trying to open it—like I knew he would.

His impatience could be annoying, but in the right moments, it was anything but.

I found myself smirking as my hands ripped the sheer top from my shoulders, tossing it onto the counter. "Give me, like, two seconds!"

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

I slipped out of the tank and glanced to the bag in the room, shoved beneath the bathroom counter. Kol hadn't thought anything about it when I came into the hotel room earlier and put my bag underneath the bathroom counter, and everything was going according to plan.

I shed the rest of my clothes, to the point that I stood naked in the bathroom, but I didn't intend to _stay_ that way.

Before I became a vampire, when we had first settled in at Phoenix, all of the women went shopping. I had been one hundred percent against it, but it was fun. It was a good day for us, probably the first day that we had all gone out and just had fun without the past bringing out bitterness. Everyone just got along with everyone, and it was amazing.

When we reached the lingerie store, the awkward moments occurred. Bonnie was sleeping with Jeremy. Elena and I just didn't care to see what the other would wear in bed with our separate significant others, and then of course there was the fact that I was sleeping with Kol, and that made Rebekah uncomfortable, at least buying the lingerie for him.

We kinda just went our separate ways in the store, buying our own things, but Caroline, Prisca, and Shea got to have a lot of fun with it, with me. Maisyn liked the surprise of it all, so she kinda hung back, just waiting for us to have our fun. She wasn't the lace type for herself, but she loved seeing it on Prisca.

It was awkward, but it was fun, and Caroline had found something that she insisted I get and wear. She bought it without giving me a choice in the matter, and until I realized that we were gonna be in New Orleans on Valentine's Day, I had shoved it in the back of my drawer, hidden away so that Kol could never find it, and left it there.

The new me that had come from falling in love with an Original vampire, a bloodthirsty one at that, and from becoming a mom, getting in touch with the person I always was . . . I liked it.

It wasn't that it was even anything that out there. I wore plenty of lace panties and bras, things that most would consider lingerie, but it was easy to pretend that it was just the things I had to wear. I could wearing something sexy and pretend that it was just what I put on.

The crimson lace baby doll, with matching panties, was deliberate. There was no pretending with it. It was a choice, to take a daring step that I had never had the confidence to do before. There was once that I had invited him into our home back in Mystic Falls, suggesting he come up and see what I bought, but it had just been another sexy pair of panties with matching bra. It wasn't anything like this.

The soft fabric fit me like a glove, falling across my curves perfectly, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't scared to open the door, to show myself off this way. It didn't matter my own opinion of my body because Kol very clearly loved it, and it didn't have to be ugly.

There was nothing wrong with finding positive traits about myself. It didn't make me a bad person.

I pulled the braid that I had put around my hair, to have it all the way down, and rubbed my fingers along my scalp, removing the kinks from the braid until it looked almost natural. Teasing the roots a bit gave it extra volume, which was apparently sexy. I thought it looked good anyways, so that's what I did, adding a bit of smoky eye shadow on top of the basic stuff that was already there. I didn't bother attempting to wipe off the pink lipstick because I just covered it with a crimson red, a red that was meant to come off rather easily.

It could be hot, seeing his body covered in red lipstick.

There was no fear stopping me from opening the door, from removing the magic from the handle and clicking the lock. I expected him to rip it open, but he didn't.

He just stood on the other side, waiting, and the moment I came into view, I had never seen him melt the way that he did, loosening every muscle in his body as a deep breath resonated through him, stoking the flames burning in his eyes.

I did my best to keep my teeth off my lips because I really didn't wanna taste lipstick, or smudge it, but my smile was wide. "You know what today is?"

His lips parted enough that a heavy breath passed through them, but his eyes were taking in every piece of me in this moment. "I kind of don't care right now."

I was a vampire, and we had already explored the perks of being durable. I had used my vampire speed to my advantage plenty of times, but there was absolutely no harm in using it now.

I pinned him back on the bed, ripping my fingers through the buttons of his shirt so fast that I did actually rip the buttons open, sending some falling to the side, but my lips fell down to the exposed skin.

Even if he _had_ cared about the shirt, he didn't anymore.

His muscles stiffened beneath my touch, beneath the feeling of my lips pressing against him. Each kiss was deliberate, pressed just the right way to leave a specific red imprint, but he didn't care. He just wanted to feel me, to get lost in the moment.

My eyes darted up to meet his, and I watched his lip disappear between his teeth. "Valentine's Day."

"Fuck," he moaned, and one hand moved to latch onto my hair, to spark something that might make me keep going.

"And I was thinking, you know, it's our first Valentine's Day together, which is crazy because it feels like I've known you forever." I sat up a bit, so that my legs were straddling his waist, and I could feel him pressing into me, the bulge hidden beneath the jeans he wore. Even with me pulled away, with the moment taking a pause so I could talk, he was just as turned on. Maybe it was because he got more time to appreciate what I was wearing. "And, you know, we've both had these pieces of ourselves missing our entire lives, and we don't anymore. We found each other, and I used to think that Valentine's Day was stupid and silly. Then I met you, and all those stupid and silly things people in love do suddenly made sense. It's why I came New Year's Eve because I wanted to be romantic and kiss you as the New Year rang in, so you knew that it would be a good one. And I want our first Valentine's Day to be memorable."

I didn't expect him to sit up and grab onto my lips the moment the words stopped falling from my lips, but maybe I should have. He kissed me fiercely, one hand holding onto the back of my head to keep me from falling backwards. The other slid to my lower back, pressing me against him.

The red didn't just stain his lips, not with the way we kissed. It was all around them actually, but something about it . . . I had accidentally stumbled on the tip online, and it didn't disappoint. Lipstick stain was hot.

I pulled away, latching my teeth onto his bottom lip as I did, and he became ferocious. "I'm making a mess."

"I don't fucking care," he growled, and a shudder of lust rippled throughout my whole body, turning me into a horny pile of mush on top of him.

He used his hand on the back of my head to push my lips back into his, only for a short time, long enough to rip the breath from within me.

He ripped away so fiercely, just to drop his lips lower, down the length of my neck and to the dimple of my collar bone. I could feel the lipstick on my skin, didn't have to see it.

It was suddenly all over. Kol was suddenly ripping himself away from me and standing upright. I saw him shed his shirt and started to get excited, until he crossed the room and unzipped his own bag.

"What—?"

"Get dressed, love." He turned back to face me, sliding into the darker button up with ease. He didn't button it, however, not yet. Instead, he headed into the bathroom, and I heard the water turn on in the sink.

I was too confused to just continue laying there, so I followed after him. I watched him wipe the lipstick off with one of the rags in the room, until his eyes found me in the mirror.

My body was pressed into the wall instantly, and the fervent fire in his eyes burned through my skin better than I think actual fire could have, igniting my blood and taking me to wet and steamy places.

"You want a Valentine's Day to remember?"

"I do." I could barely breathe, and all I could stare at was his lips so close to mine, red from contact but absent of the red from my lips. "I was kinda hoping that meant locking ourselves in here and, you know, going wild."

With my eyes glued to his lips, I saw them curl up, saw the arrogance at my desire for _him_ take over. "Fuck responsibility. We'll stay up all night again. Let me show you New Orleans, and then I will bring you back here and do some of the best things to you."

I had to physically push him off of me, to get over to the bag still resting beneath the counter, and I wore a smirk of my own.

"You mean my favorite things in the world?"

I knew that I could get to Kol. I could drive him insane with an innocent smile, with my teeth sinking into my lip or a sultry smirk, but things like that got to him in different ways, but more powerful ways. His love for me, the love that I reciprocated, overpowered and mixed with the lust in a way that was probably responsible for our insatiability.

That was fine. I had fucked before, and it didn't even come close to comparing to this. I didn't wanna just fuck ever again, and the fact that he kept us from fucking without my humanity on . . . I was appreciative of it now, looking back at it.

Everything _did_ mean something, and it always would.

There was a dress within the bag that I could wear over what I already wore, as it perfectly concealed the fabric beneath while still clinging to me in the best of ways. Silk and lace were a pretty sultry combination, and put black on top of red? Those were probably the two most notoriously sexy colors, and it was only made better because I had a pair of red stilettos to finish the outfit off.

Kol grabbed onto me after I slipped into the sheer tights, to keep my legs warm in the middle of the Louisiana February night. His hands held me against him, against his pelvis, and I could feel his longing.

"Darcy."

I didn't say anything, only smirked as I slipped into the platform stilettos that Rebekah had gotten for me the other day while I was still locked in confinement, per my request. I couldn't go out and get more shoes myself, so I asked her to get me some, to surprise me. She certainly did, and I didn't regret the decision at all.

The tights helped my foot slip into the shoe with ease, and Kol's grip on me only tightened, especially as I pressed myself against him. "Hmm?"

"I don't think there are words that can properly explain to you how much I love you, and how much I need you."

* * *

 **A/N: Phew, long chapter.**

 **I have officially finished writing part 2 and started on the outline for part 3! Yay. :D That's exciting to me because I still remember when this story was dead, but it's not dead anymore. It's very much alive and thriving.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	36. 35: The Meanest Person

"See you in the dark,  
All eyes on you, my magician.  
All eyes on us.  
You make everyone disappear, and  
Cut me into pieces.  
Gold cage, hostage to my feelings.  
Back against the wall,  
Trippin', trip-trippin' when you're gone.

'Cause we break down a little,  
But when you get me alone, it's so simple.  
'Cause baby, I know what you know.  
We can feel it.

And all our pieces fall  
Right into place.  
Get caught up in a moment,  
Lipstick on your face.  
So it goes…  
I'm yours to keep,  
And I'm yours to lose.  
You know I'm not a bad girl, but I  
Do bad things with you."

 _So It Goes . . ._ : Taylor Swift

* * *

Kol had a way of getting to me, so much that while he finished getting changed into something more suited for a date—I didn't even realize he had brought "proper" clothes with him to New Orleans—I just kinda stood there. He noticed, and he wore a smirk that only made things worse.

It wasn't until he held my jacket up for me to slide into that I snapped out of it, and I slipped into it effortlessly.

His hands lingered on my shoulders, with his head ducking closer to take in the scent of me. "You didn't have to make it so hard to let you out of the room."

"This is our last night in New Orleans," I reminded him, and I spun in his arms to face him, to wrap my arms around him. "We're breaking all the rules, despite your familial bond."

"Yes, well, at least it will be worth it." His smile widened, and he reached out to put a hand on my face. "I would give anything to see you smile."

"You don't have to go stomping on your brothers' rules for that," I assured him. "You make me smile effortlessly."

He smirked. "Alright, I am dying for a bit of fun. Since you've gotten back, all we've done is run, or hide, and I would like to spend a night without worrying about any of that. I would like to show you a proper Valentine's Day."

"Oh, and I'm not gonna get some lecture about the true horrors of the origins of Valentine's Day?" I asked, but I stepped away from him, throwing my hair into a simple but elegant ponytail, using hair to wrap it up and hold it in place.

He was in front of me in a second, holding me close to him, and his eyes scanned over my body, taking in every piece that he could see. "This is not a holiday I would dare ruin for either of us, love."

I was suddenly released from his grip, only so he could slide into his own peacoat and open the door to our hotel room. It was a few down from Elijah and Klaus', and I kinda figured that was an intentional thing that they did.

While we were in New Orleans . . . if there was anywhere to find out about some kind of privacy spell, this would be the place. I hadn't thought to ask Shea or Prisca, or Bonnie for that matter, but what could I say? "Oh, hey guys. Yeah, I wanna know a privacy spell. What for? You know . . . things."

Actually, yes. I could do just that.

I was surprised when we passed by Elijah and then Klaus' door to see Kol knock on each softly, loudly enough to get their attention however.

Elijah was the first to come out, and his eyebrows rose. "Going somewhere?"

"Yes, we are." Kol turned to Klaus' door as it opened. "Don't wait up."

Elijah folded his arms over his chest and leaned into the door. "Are you sure that's wise, brother?"

"Oh come now, Elijah, we won't be long," Kol assured him. "There's no harm in going out to grab a bite to eat, is there?"

"Yes, well, that's what room service is for, brother," Klaus said, though I watched him smirk. "Oh, that's right. You don't know what that is."

Kol's eyes darkened for a moment, but he smirked back at his brother just as brightly. "Joke's on you, Nik. I happen to know what that is because I did spend time living out of a hotel, you know, killing your hybrids and whatnot."

"Yes, well, I think it would be in everyone's best interests if you two stayed in." Klaus glanced at me now, and he shifted his weight a bit. "Are you sure you're ready to get out there, little witch? There is a werewolf curse lying dormant."

"Believe me, I know." I shrugged my shoulders a bit. "Kinda won't leave me alone, but how will I ever know if I can handle it without trying?"

Elijah took a deep breath, ripping both of our attention from Klaus. "I suppose we should let them have their evening, Niklaus. After all, it is a . . . special day for them both."

"Special day?" Klaus almost groaned, but he immediately pointed at me, his eyebrows pulled up. "I blame you for this entirely. One year, Kol and I went around feasting on lovers. Their blood was somehow sweeter."

"Yes, well, that was horrible of us and all, but I would like to take her to dinner." Kol reached out to place a hand on my back, and he smiled at his brother. "In remembrance of those poor lovers we slaughtered."

"Um, _no_." I held a hand up, and Kol's eyes snapped to me in an instant. "I am not letting your bad juju ruin my Valentine's Day."

That was enough to get Klaus laughing, hard enough that he had no more to say and simply went back into his room. Elijah reminded us to be careful and did the same.

"Bad juju?"

I folded my arms over my chest. "Those poor people. They just wanted to celebrate being in love."

"Yes, well, at the time, I thought love was meaningless and trivial," he reminded me, but his brow furrowed, his eyes going to a distant place. "Now, I do feel quite bad about that. Poor lot. I had actually forgotten about it, to be honest. It was here that we did that, the very year that Nik daggered me."

I reached out to grab onto the lining of his jacket, pulling him towards me without any resistance on his part. "Well, here's to those poor, poor lovers who had their Valentine's Days ruined for the rest of their lives. Now, I am a bit spoiled, and I blame that entirely on you—"

His smile began to grow the moment I said the word spoiled. "I will proudly take responsibility for that."

"But I want this night for me." I caught his gaze with mine, and it was as if I had put him into a trance, forced him to look at me somehow. "I say for me, but by me, I really mean _us_."

He placed a hand on my cheek, the touch mirroring the softness in his eyes or draped across his smile. "And we will have your night, you spoiled little princess."

"No!"

He burst into a loud laughter, the kind that only could come from someone who was truly happy, but he reached out to grab onto my hand anyways. "You've done it now, Darcy Gilbert."

With my free hand, I tried to cover my face, but my hands weren't big enough to do that alone. I didn't know if anyone's hands were big enough to cover them fully with just one, but what did I know?

" _Fuck_."

"We'll get to that bit soon enough." He began pulling me towards the elevator. I heard him press the button, and with one hand in mine, he was able to spin me into his arms flawlessly. Though there was a small fire in his eyes, his smile was soft. "First, I think I'm overdue for a proper Valentine's Day."

"You are," I agreed, and I stepped towards the elevator the moment I heard it ding, heard the heavy doors slide open. "You're overdue for a lot of things."

"Am I now?" He stepped into the elevator with me, and as the doors began to shut behind him, I found myself pressed back into the metal walls, with nothing but his body holding me there. "Why don't you—?"

The sound of the doors stopping, of a hand reaching out to keep them from closing all the way, cut him off. A man stood there, attached to the hand, and his eyes were wide when he stepped on and noticed how close Kol and me were.

I could see Kol's eyes darken in the reflection of the mirror, the reflection of the doors actually closing back this time, but I didn't expect him to reach out and actually grab ahold of the man.

He did, though, grabbed him by the shoulders and looked right into his eyes. "I want you to ignore us. I want you to forget that you even saw us."

Compulsion was a weird thing, and there was a time in my life where I was completely against it being used at all. If I thought too much into it, of course I would realize that it was wrong to fuck with people's minds, but right now, I was too turned on to care how horrible it was in the long run. This was relatively harmless, just forcing a man to forget the couple he saw making the elevator rather steamy.

Kol was in front of me in an instant, his smirk back and proud. "Vampires are so easy to compel. They think they're so safe."

My head turned to the side, towards the reflection in the doors, and I saw that this man was, in fact, standing there, completely oblivious to the fact that we were even there. It was like he couldn't even see us.

I watched Kol's hands roam down, and he didn't hesitate to move one beneath my skirt. He managed to do so without completely exposing me, even if the man couldn't see me.

His eyes tightened when he found the fabric of the tights beneath, but he adjusted, instead rubbing me through the fabric. Tights and lace panties were thin, thin enough that I could feel him pressing against me, feel him moving his finger in just the right way to make my toes curl, despite being scrunched into the shoes Rebekah had gotten for me.

"Tell me, love. What am I overdue for?"

It was over the moment he breathed the words into my ear, and maybe I should've expected that. The elevator had reached the ground floor, after all, and it had shaken ever so slightly to prove that.

By the time the doors slid open, Kol had moved enough away from me that it didn't look odd, or overly intimate. He stood in front of me, staring down at me with eyes that burnt the building down around us, but his smile was soft.

"Are you ready to go to dinner, my love?"

The two of us left the hotel with our hands intertwined, intimate enough that there was no mistaking that we were together but separate enough that we could take our own steps without tripping over one another. I didn't know if Kol actually knew where we would end up tonight, but he didn't seem to have a place in mind. We simply explored the night culture of New Orleans, stepping through some of the more lively streets filled with people exploring it the way that we were.

We were careful to avoid the supernatural, with everything going on. The witches of New Orleans knew about our kids, so we had to ensure that we remained amongst the living, the normal human life.

Eventually, we passed one that seemed interesting enough. It wasn't an Italian restaurant, so that was a new positive change.

My brow scrunched as the two of us approached the black metal doors of the restaurant, with intricate but beautiful designs. "It just occurred to me that we've been on a total of two dates, unless you count those two movies we randomly went to see."

"Hmm, and we already have children. I think we skipped at least two or three proper protocols for that."

"To be fair, that came from the first one," I informed him, though my mind wandered back to try and remember if I had actually mentioned that to him before. He probably guessed it as easily as I had, but I couldn't remember if I had said it out-loud before.

His lips pursed, his eyes traveling to distant memories that weren't as distant as they seemed. "Mmm. That was a good night." He glanced back at me before pulling the door open, holding it open for me like the proper gentleman he wasn't. "Well, in honor of our third date, why don't we do something completely different?"

The music on the inside had been muffled by the walls and the doors, but I could hear it. It didn't compare to how crisp and melodic each sound from the live instruments was, the lively jazz that sang through the air. It was upbeat, and when we stepped inside, I saw why. People were dancing, those who weren't sitting around at a table eating, and it was definitely nothing that we had done before.

There was a table in the back, set for two, and that's where we went. It was low key, but there were still waitresses that came to your table once you sat down. The woman was in much more casual attire than the last two places we had been, and it just helped give the entire atmosphere a more relaxed aura, which I was _definitely_ on board with.

"What can I get you two tonight?"

"A round of beers, and my girlfriend has been dying to try some gumbo since we got to New Orleans." His eyes darted over to me, watching my smile grow. "What do you recommend?"

I held a finger up. "Actually, I'm not just looking for gumbo. I want to try some Cajun gumbo, maybe with shrimp."

Kol grinned madly the moment I had said the word Cajun, and his eyes lit up brighter than the room around us. "Yes, well, she likes things hot."

"I can see that."

I buried my face in my hands and let out a groan, at the same time Kol began to laugh. It wasn't as full as his laugh earlier had been, but he was _not_ gonna protest anyone telling him how good looking he was.

"I like you." Though his eyes darted to her for a moment, they didn't remain there long, instead moving back to me and locking in place. "Do you have any gumbos that are . . . sweeter? I'm _dying_ to taste something sweet on my tongue."

"Uh—I, um, y-yeah." One glance at the waitress was all it took to notice that her cheeks were flushed, her thoughts slurred. Kol had really done a number on her within a minute of sitting down, and I felt like that was a record or something. "I know just the thing."

She turned away briskly and left us there, and I was grateful for that moment to contain myself. Still new to this Original thing, the vampire thing in general, I hadn't quite coped to just how much differently emotions hit me. The lust, the reminder that the very best feeling as a human was only heightened and made infinitely better as a vampire, burned through me so quickly, so powerfully, that I had to actually shed my jacket.

It didn't help that he knew what he was doing either, that his smirk widened in perfect timing with his eyes melting back to the same liquid they had been inside our bedroom.

I had to take a deep breath, leaning forward to prop arms on the side of the table. "You shouldn't do that to people."

"Why?" he asked, his words breathy whispers. "It's so much fun, especially when I can get you all worked up and ready to go when doing it."

"Sweetheart, you can get me worked up by breathing, so you don't have to torment poor waitresses along the way," I informed him. "It's mean."

"I'm not a nice person, Darcy." He leaned closer, closing half the space between us so that not even a foot remained. "Have you not learned that by now?"

"You're the worst," I corrected. "Not just 'not a nice person.' You're the absolute worst, Kol Mikaelson."

He wiggled his eyebrows a bit, winking along with it, and holy _fuck_ was that a mistake. The last thing my body needed right now was more reason to jump the table. It was already a thought burning in the back of my mind, and when you add in the fact that I could compel everyone to look away or cloak us while we had our fun, it was almost impossible to keep myself seated.

It was like he could read my thoughts, like he was taunting me, because as the thought of jumping him right there kept trying to resurface, he flicked his bottom lip between his teeth. "Mmm. Remind me that tonight."

 _Fuck_.

The only reason I didn't jump him and do just that was because our waitress came back with our beers, promising that our sweet and spicy gumbos would be up soon. She still seemed a bit flushed at the sight of Kol, but he didn't even notice anymore, with his eyes removing all the clothes on my body so obviously.

It didn't get better either. Throughout the entire dinner, he would do things that just stir the pot further. Licking his lips when some of the sweet gumbo touched them, focusing on nothing but my lips for an entire piece of a conversation . . . I didn't know if he had anything more planned for today, but it was my day. We were going back to the hotel.

Unless I turned it around. I had power over Kol, enough power that I could get to him as easily as he got to me. The only difference was, he had a thousand years to adjust to these heightened emotions and desires. I hadn't even been a vampire for a week at this point, and most of my time had been spent controlling other things, such as my werewolf curse beneath my skin, or trying to hide the fact that I had become a vampire with a sire bond. Then there was the random realization that the Gemini had found us in Phoenix, so most of my time wasn't spent controlling my emotions, especially the desire to push Kol against the wall and have my dirty way with him.

I didn't do that, however, because the Darcy that I had always been was still there, even if she was buried beneath all the longing that Kol brought out in me.

We barely made it out the door before I stopped in front of him, turning to press my hands against his chest in the way he loved. He loved it when I touched him, felt every piece of him and took in the handsome marvel that he was. I liked to joke that it was his arrogance showing, but it was more than that.

He had gone his entire life without love, without someone who truly saw him, and whenever I showed him that I did . . . he struggled to contain himself.

It was as if he expected this kind of reaction because he just grabbed onto my hands and shook his head, placing them back down by my side and clicking his tongue.

"Now, Darcy Gilbert, your thoughts are not proper for our current setting," he playfully scolded, though his eyes told me that we were on the same page. "Why don't you try and behave yourself just a little longer?"

"It _would_ be indecent for anyone else to see what I have underneath this dress," I agreed.

The reminder of the lingerie I wore had his mind trailing somewhere hot, towards the place I wanted him to go for all the torment he was inflicting upon me, but it was brief. Despite this being a new feeling for Kol—the love aspect of it anyways—he got control of himself with ease.

"I don't imagine anyone around would mind that being the last thing they ever saw," he breathed just moments before his hand dropped down my side, lingering across the silk of the dress I wore. I wondered if he was trying to feel what was underneath, or if he was just tormenting me some more.

If I had to guess, probably the latter.

With his fingers touching along my side, it took a few seconds for that to register, that Kol was implying he would murder all of the people around us if they happened to catch a glimpse of the more private skin.

"Why does it matter if they see too much?" I snorted. "It's not like they'll probably even remember. Most of these people are happily drunk."

I was ripped close to him, his arms gripping me so tightly that it actually hurt a bit. I didn't _mind_ the bit of pain, however, especially when his lips nestled in closer.

"Every inch of your beautiful skin is _mine_ to enjoy for eternity, and mine alone," he growled, the warm breaths tickling the skin of my ear.

I could feel it resonating through me, the hunger, the craving for _him_. It was powerful, bringing each and every nerve inside of my body to life, and I could feel my knees buckling, the blood beneath my skin boiling.

My eyes squeezed shut, and I dug my fingers into the thick fabric of his coat. "Kol." I hated that I said his name like a whimper, like a lost puppy, but I couldn't help it.

His arms tightened around me for a moment before he let out a soft sigh, releasing me just enough that I could get a glimpse of his softened features, though the smirk still remained.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't do this to you right now, not while you're still so new." He brought my hands to his mouth and kissed them both. "You know, the only reason I haven't killed Damon is because you care about him."

"He told you?" I asked, but the cold air burned against my wide open eyes. I had to blink a few times to get rid of any tears that might've started forming with the change of the air.

I watched his jaw tighten, watched his eyes begin studying all of my features, and that was discombobulating. "To be fair, he was under compulsion."

I sucked in a gulp of air. "You asked him that?"

"No," he disagreed. "I asked him to tell me something Elena didn't know that would make her hate him if she did. That's what he told me, and I impaled him."

"Kol!"

He exhaled sharply, his tightened eyes darting away briefly before finding me again and softening. "I know. It was horrible and all, but it's in the past. It's all said and done, so let's focus on _now_." He reached out to pull me back against him, close enough he could nuzzle his face next to my ear. "Besides, I'm the only one who has seen your perfect body exactly as it is."

I smirked. "Oh, you mean since I got fat?"

A low growl ripped through him, and his movements were stiff as he ripped himself back from me, to give me a stern glare, or at least the best one he could give me. We could get mad at one another, but not really, not like we could other people.

His glares were softer when sent my way, and now was no different. "Darcy—"

"I know, I know." I grabbed onto his hands and took a step back, away from the doorway we had barely moved out of. "I 'filled out,' as you call it. Come on. Let's get out of here. Take me to the busiest street in town."

Both eyebrows pulled up on his head, and his tightened eyes rounded. "Where is this coming from? Where is my girlfriend who has been very adamant about avoiding people?"

"Um, I was just inside a fairly crowded bar and did just fine," I reminded him. "I think I can handle walking through the streets."

He sighed. "I don't know, Darcy. There was loud music to drown out the sound of their heartbeats."

"And there's music just about everywhere you go in New Orleans," I insisted, and I began pouting. " _Please_ let me do this. If you think for a second that I can't handle it, we'll leave and go straight back to our hotel room. I just . . . I'm tired of locking myself away. How will I ever learn control if I don't _try_?"

He let go of one of my hands so he could curl his fingers beneath my chin, to force me to look at him, and the soft smile was so beautiful, made my heart race in my chest. "Would you like to walk between people or actually start learning control?"

"What do you mean?"

He dropped his hand from my face and started the walk forward, and I started with him, moving almost in sync as we stepped away from the place we had just stopped to eat. He took an immediate right, heading towards a completely different road, but there was music in the distance, loud music. It seemed to be another busy street in the night.

"You haven't had anything to eat since we left the house," he said. "Would you like to change that?"

It was hard not to freeze, to stop walking towards the next block over, but I followed along with him. I didn't worry so much about everything going on around me, as Kol wasn't going to let anything happen to me, but instead allowed myself to get lost in thought, in the idea of what he was implying.

Did I want to try drinking from the vein? I wasn't a week old yet, but I had only ever drank directly from Kol. That had been hard enough to stop, so would it be the same for a human?

Could I even do this?

As we turned the block, arriving on a much livelier street filled with younger couples, couples that looked more our age—though I wasn't sure how many of them were still alive and how many were undead—Kol suddenly stopped, turning to touch the skin of my cheeks softly.

"I swear to you, Darcy. I won't let you kill anyone."

I nodded stiffly, finding comfort in his words, and I took in a brisk breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

His eyes were shining when he glanced back at me, but he did just that. With his hand still in mine, the two of us walked further into the busy street, moving past the couples we passed until we found the part of the Valentine's Day scene that took over just about any town, big or small—the people celebrating SAD. That was what I thought Caroline had called it.

Yeah, Single's Awareness Day. It was basically people's way of giving the finger to Valentine's Day simply because they didn't have anyone, and good on them.

Those were the people I was seeking out, however. It wasn't that I planned to kill anyone, but I didn't want to ruin someone's Valentine's Day by, you know, eating their Valentine.

He let go of my hand to use both hands to reach out, to gesture to the streets full of people dancing to the music and walking along the streets drinking. I didn't understand how that was even legal, but from what I understood about this town, there was a lot that went down that the people turned a blind-eye to, like the vampire who seemed to be running it all.

"What would you like, princess?" he asked.

Despite the knots inside my stomach, the tightness stiffening every muscle in my body, I managed to actually smile at him. "Careful. That's gonna become endearing."

"Oh, I do hope so."

I didn't let myself get lost in the idea of that, in my new nickname being princess, because I was surrounded by heartbeats, by people who I was supposed to be choosing to eat from. It was terrifying, for so many reasons.

"How does this work?" I mumbled. "Do I just . . . do I just pick one?"

He nodded. "Don't think too much into it either. I don't care either way, but I happen to know that you _will_. Don't ask questions. Don't look into anything about who they are. Pick someone, and we'll go from there, okay?"

I didn't like the fact that he didn't plan to go with me, at least not to pick someone. Being in a street crowded with singles, we would look a bit odd walking around together as a couple I guess, but who named this Singles Street anyways?

My eyes scanned each person, and I realized I couldn't actually do this. Drinking from someone when the chance came up was one thing, but _picking_ someone to drink from?

That was until I saw a guy pinning a girl into the wall, just across the street just outside of what looked to be a bar. She looked uncomfortable, and when I tried focusing on their conversation, I could hear it, as if I was standing right there.

" _Come on, baby. Let me show you a good time."_

" _No, I'd rather just hang out here alone. Thanks."_

Scum bag number one, check.

I didn't even look at Kol, just headed towards the people. I imagined he was probably following, but I didn't actually check. If I was gonna do this, maybe it was best to pick the person out alone, to make this choice on my own.

Who was I kidding? Why did I need to do any of it alone?

Still, I stepped onto the sidewalk where the guy stood, and my mind was racing, thinking of a million different ways to do this. A direct attack would attract too much attention, and I couldn't just drag him away.

Ugh, would I have to play along? Pretend things might go wherever he clearly wanted to go?

First things first, he needed to get away from the woman who was clearly cornered by him, and I decided to provide the distraction. Bumping my shoulder into him, lightly enough that it seemed like an accident but hard enough that it knocked him over a bit, I pretended as if I planned to keep walking.

The guy's attention shifted alright, and he had his hand around my throat in a second, pinning me into the wall the same way he had that woman. She let out a soft scream and ran off, leaving me to whatever fate this man planned for me.

I saw the darkness around his eyes, the veins underneath his eyes filling with blood, and the fangs poked from his lips. "You're new in town. We're not supposed to feed off anyone who isn't stamped, but you look too damn tasty to pass up on."

He didn't even get to get anywhere close to me before Kol had him against the wall, his own vampire face coming out in an instant with his hand actually crushing the man's neck. The bones were breaking, but it wasn't so hard that he actually blacked out. It was just inflicting pain, breaking the little bones that didn't matter all that much.

"What did you just say?"

The man glanced at me for a moment before looking back to Kol, his eyes wide. "I just said she looked tasty. I didn't-I didn't know."

"That's not what I meant." The words were like venom as they fell through Kol's lips. "I know damn well how delicious this woman really is. What did you say about feeding on those stamped?"

"It's-It's Marcel's rules, man," he said, but he was struggling to do so with Kol's ever tightening grip on his throat. "Only feed on the tourists, never locals. And you can't kill vampires."

Kol rolled his eyes and dropped the man. "You're not even worth the effort."

My eyebrows rose, but I didn't say anything. Even though the guy was trying to get away, he was clearly a vampire, and I didn't want him hearing something that I didn't need to say. I didn't know what exactly might be going through Kol's mind, what might've made him just drop him instead of actually killing him.

Where was the jealous and protective Kol?

"We need to get back to the hotel room, now." He reached out to grab onto my hand. "And you're not allowed to pick who we eat anymore."

That was just what I needed, something else to get wrong as a vampire. I was an Original vampire who couldn't even spot a vampire from a human, so how was I supposed to properly protect my kids?

I wasn't alone. That was how I was supposed to properly protect them. By doing things with others, by not trying to take any steps by myself, I was going to protect my kids.

I wasn't alone.


	37. 36: The Good In You

"Bend your chest open so I can reach your heart.  
I need to get inside, or I'll start a war.  
Wanna look at the pieces that make you who you are.  
I wanna build you up and pick you apart.  
Let me see the dark sides as well as the bright.  
I'm gonna love you inside out."

 _Inside Out_ : The Chainsmokers feat. Charlee

* * *

I didn't think much about the woman Kol had brought back to our hotel room with us. I was so focused on reminding myself that I couldn't kill her that I didn't let any other thoughts come bubbling to the surface.

She had to survive. Kol would be much closer this way, better able to stop me from killing her.

The moment Kol had the door closed, I turned back to him and took a deep breath. I watched him slide out of his jacket and began to do the same. "Okay, so you swear to me that you're not gonna let me kill her?"

The love in his eyes was answer enough, but he answered me anyways. "I wouldn't do that, Darcy. I know what happens if you do."

"Even though . . . even though it would make me hurt less?"

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a steady breath that helped him move past the things I was saying out-loud. "Emotional pain is harder than physical, Darcy. I won't let you kill her, though you should probably hurry because she's getting undressed."

"What?" I spun around immediately, and sure enough, the girl was already barefoot and stumbling around, trying to grab onto the zipper of her dress. That was all I needed to see, and I turned back to Kol, my eyes rounded fully. "Why is she getting naked?"

"I'm assuming because we didn't compel her to come back with us, only asked, she assumed that we need a third person for our Valentine's Day fun," he said, and his smirk widened, brightened the already burning depths of his liquid golden chocolate eyes. "I could be wrong, but I don't think I am."

I didn't hesitate to speed across the room, to try and stop the girl from getting naked. I didn't imagine that I was quite as jealous as Kol, but that didn't mean I wanted some random girl getting naked in front of him.

Three was just a crowd to me, nothing more.

The girl didn't even seem fazed by the fact that I just appeared in front of her, and with a drunken giggle, she grabbed onto my face and kissed me. It didn't last more than a second because I managed to understand what she just did and pulled away, but that didn't mean she didn't try again.

"I've never kissed a girl before," she said, but her eyes didn't stay on me. "And I can't remember a time where I slept with anyone that hot either."

"Yeah, and you're not going to tonight either." I grabbed onto her face, hard enough that she stopped trying to move and just stared at me, looked right into my eyes. "Don't scream. Don't be afraid, and don't move."

If I wasn't a vampire, the way I tucked her hair behind her neck might've been taken as a provocative action, but it wasn't about that. I had learned to tune out the sound of heartbeats, the blood, but that was exactly what I needed to hear, to focus on.

It was loud, pounding in my ears as if it was my own, and I could feel the blood rushing to my face. The fangs poked through painlessly now, once they had done it the first time, but I knew what I looked like.

I couldn't smell whatever perfume she wore, couldn't smell the hint of sweat from whatever she had been up to before this point. All I could smell was the blood beneath her skin, moving through her veins at a steady pace, simply because I told her not to be afraid.

I could've stood there all day, but it was getting harder to not taste her for myself. Eventually, there was so much saliva in my mouth that I had to swallow it back, and I didn't hesitate any longer.

I sank my teeth into the very place that Kol had taught me, the best place to get the most blood from. The warmth was unlike anything else, and somehow it tasted better than the blood bags ever could. It was like eating a fresh apple compared to a nearly rotten one. Sure, it would satiate the hunger, but it didn't compare to that juicy and crisp apple, straight from the tree.

There was more than blood in her system, however, and it was becoming apparent the more that I drank from her. I could taste it as its own taste, somehow. I could taste the fresh blood, but I could taste whatever alcohol she had in her system. It was a lot, a dangerous amount even.

I ripped myself away from her and turned back to Kol, my eyes wide. "She's got borderline alcohol poisoning."

The smile on his lips didn't make much sense to me in the moment, but he crossed the room, sank his teeth into the other side of her neck. I didn't know how long I had actually fed from her, but he didn't for very long, just a few seconds.

He ripped himself away with more ease than I expected, from the blood crazed maniac. Not killing _me_ was one thing, but her? That was something else. She didn't matter to him at all, yet he didn't kill her.

"She's drunk," he agreed. "But barely. It's not a dangerous amount. Do you remember the first night we snuck away for a couple days? You were drinking tequila, and I could taste it. That's all I taste in her system as well."

"Oh." The rush of the warm blood, straight from the vein, had me feeling pretty giddy, in a way that I didn't really want to think about. It was a good feeling, but I was afraid to feel it. If I enjoyed it too much, what was to stop me from wanting more from the vein? From drinking and becoming blood crazed until someone died?

Still, it was getting to me, and I giggled, much like I had that night. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, for the moment forgetting about the drunk compelled woman next to us.

His hands rested on my hips, but there was the restraint of someone who _hadn't_ forgotten our current setting. He let me kiss him, though, and got very much into it, even when I licked the blood just inside his mouth.

Actually, that bit turned him on more, almost made him lose control of himself.

"I feel . . . very dizzy."

Kol ripped himself away from me, his eyes widened. "Right. Shit. Sorry." He bit down on his wrist and put it against her mouth, and though she didn't understand, she didn't pull away either. "Darcy, you compelled her to be still, so you have to do this."

"Right." I grabbed her eyes with mine. "Forget everything that happened. Forget us entirely. Get your shoes and go home. Get some rest."

She bent down to grab her shoes from the ground, and she left, just like that. It was almost like watching a robot walk away, and that was sad. It was . . . I was becoming everything I hated Elena doing to Jeremy.

A warm breath tickled the side of my neck, and all the bad seemed to just float away. This was part of being a vampire, and I knew it wouldn't be easy. I knew I would have to do things that I didn't like, but someone was alive. If I had to compel her to forget so she had a chance to live, maybe there were reasons compulsion was good.

"Mmm. Now where were we?"

I spun back around to face him, and my fingers rushed through the buttons of his shirt. It was like our first time, or the first time in a long time. In truth, it hadn't even been twenty-four hours, yet we couldn't slow down. We couldn't get undressed fast enough, at least until I was in nothing but the lingerie and the stilettos, which Kol was more than happy to leave on.

Lips moved with unbridled fervor, across exposed skin, and our breaths were wild and heavy but somehow in sync.

It wasn't until I was pressed back into the bed that it caught up to me, what I had actually just done.

"Kol!"

His eyes were wide when he ripped himself away from me. "What?"

I loved seeing him stare at me this way, so lost after being suddenly ripped away from the things he had longed for his entire existence, even without realizing it. "I didn't kill her."

"You didn't." Though his eyes were burning, his smile was soft, and he leaned closer to me, to press himself against me. "I knew you wouldn't, love. You were so concerned that she had alcohol poisoning that you shut off the monster in you. I know you feel a bit out of your element right now, but you, Darcy Gilbert, are still you. You can absolutely do this whole saint eternity thing."

When I grabbed his lips with mine, something began taking over, something I had never really experienced before. There had been times where I had the urge to be on top, to sort of take control of things, but this was different.

I had him on his back, with his arms pinned by his side, and I couldn't even understand what made me do that. I didn't mind it, actually found it kind of exhilarating to see him beneath me like this, pinned down by me like this . . . and it was only made better because _he_ loved it.

His eyes were wide, but his lips parted, quick breaths coming out that were in tune with the lust this action brought out. It was easy to see how much he liked it from the way his eyes burned, and even though I didn't know what brought it out in me, I was gonna take full advantage of it.

"Be still."

His body squirmed beneath me, but his hands grabbed onto my hips, pressing me into him with nothing but the thin fabric of my panties keeping us from full skin to skin contact. "Can't do that, love."

I put more pressure onto his lips, but I couldn't stop the large smile that was coming out, the one that didn't fit the mood at all. It was some of blood high. It had to be, but all I could feel was _giddy_ , an increase of the desire for him. Everything heightened was somehow heightened even more, and it hard to be forceful when I was so elated.

I groaned. "Damn it, I suck at this."

"It's both adorable and extremely hot to watch you try, though." His bottom lip disappeared between his teeth, and his moved beneath me again. "I am all for you continuing to try, though I will warn you that I am not the submissive type. I prefer to be in control of things."

"Hmm." I used magic to hold his wrists against the bed, and I leaned back away from him. "How can I be both? I _really_ enjoy being dominated, but I don't know. This seems fun."

"Because you're not like anyone else in the world, Darcy Gilbert. Because you're you."

It wasn't the first time he had said that to me, but with the rush of all that happened in such a short time, I was kissing him again, fiercely. He tried to move his wrists, pulling against the magic restraints, but it didn't work. That frustrated him, and since he couldn't actually get himself free, he used his teeth to grab onto my bottom lip, as if it would give him some sort of control of the situation.

I was able to rip myself away because he would never bite down so hard that he tore through my lip, and I sat up on him, far enough away that I could take in the view of my work, of his pinned wrists and the almost feral look in his eyes.

This was proving to be quite a wonderful Valentine's Day after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Ten more chapters and then the epilogue. :)**

 **I have the prologue for part 3 written, as well as some of the outline. I'm still working on it, and I'm trying to finish it before I end up losing my momentum in this story. I hope that won't happen, but it does, unfortunately.**

 **I will see this story through, however.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	38. 37: The Playhouse

"I got the sunset in my pocket,  
And I'm not afraid to use it.  
Now I'm feeling superhuman.  
That's the point of the illusion . . .  
. . . I'm the man on demand 'round here  
I'm the man 'round here

Baby, you can't stomp me out.  
You know you can't even slow me down.  
You know I spread this wild around,  
So if you're sure, you better shoot me now."

 _Stomp Me Out_ : Bryce Fox

* * *

Lafayette Cemetery was massive, maybe one of the biggest cemeteries in New Orleans. I didn't know because it was the only one we went to, but it was bigger than any cemetery I had ever been to. That was saying a lot because the place my parents were buried, along with most of the Founding Families in Mystic Falls and then some, was rather massive.

I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, though I did wear some wedge booties instead of actual heels. A burgundy dress, ripped tights, and a military jacket, I felt awesome. I didn't feel like the sweet and innocent Darcy who couldn't take care of herself.

I was vampire Darcy, with my magic stronger than ever, and while I hadn't activated my werewolf curse, I _did_ have it inside, just in case. As if being an Original vampire with access to magic wasn't reason enough, let's just add in the werewolf gene, entirely for fun.

"Why is your playhouse in the middle of a cemetery?"

Kol climbed out of the rental SUV behind me, closing the door the moment he was clear of it, and he took a deep breath. His eyes weren't on me but instead the cemetery around us, a place that surely brought back some memories.

"It was easy to hide in the middle of all the graves and tombs," he said, though the words were distant, lost to the memories.

"What's inside?"

That snapped him back, at least enough that he looked at me. "It was a place that a couple of witches I used to run with could do the magic I told you about, kemiya. They created many dark objects for me over time, though I don't imagine they're still inside."

My eyebrows furrowed. "How, if she sealed it?"

"She sealed it, but I don't think she just left the objects inside," he admitted. "They were powerful enough that they could change the tide of war. She wasn't stupid enough to seal them away, surely."

There was a lot of history in this place, Mikaelson family history, and maybe if things were different, we could've stayed behind and explored it, but this wasn't time to learn. This wasn't a chance to explore and see the world. It was something that had to be done, to save the twins from the Gemini before they could find a way to _murder_ them.

History could wait, at least the history that had to be seen and not spoken of.

I buried my hands in my pockets and took a deep breath. "You know, when you told me you had a playhouse, you wanna know what my first thought was?"

The corners of his lips curled into a smirk, to match the devious glow inside of his warm eyes. "I actually really do."

"What made you decide to call it that?"

He shrugged, but his eyes told a different story than just a nonchalant response. This place meant something to Kol, as it had obviously been a big part of his life in New Orleans. "A lot of fun stuff happened there. I supervised witches making dark objects for me, which got me the closest to using magic since I turned."

I didn't mean to smirk, didn't mean to study every detail of his face, but I couldn't help it. I knew Kol Mikaelson fairly well, and if he had a place called his playhouse, I wasn't going to believe it was merely a place he and some witches created dark objects.

"Uh huh."

His eyebrows raised on his forehead, though his smirk pressed together into something less bright, with far less arrogance. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

I didn't want to seem petty and silly because if I thought too much about it, I'd feel horrible and insecure and utterly ridiculous. There was no way to know just how many stunning women Kol had met and been with over the years, yet somehow, none of them had made the impact that I did.

I was secure in that, that I was the only woman Kol had ever loved, the only woman he _would_ ever love, but that didn't mean I was comfortable thinking about it. That didn't mean I _liked_ knowing that there had been other women in his life, surely far better looking than I could ever hope to be.

 _Let's just stop that right now._

It was wrong to think that way. His past was just that, and now, it was time to look at the future, _our_ future. We were pretty much permanently attached to one another, and not even because of the twins. They were just an added bonus.

Being petty and ridiculous made me feel stupid enough, but to be that way in front of his brothers? I couldn't imagine a more horrifying thought, so instead of letting the thoughts get to me, I just let my smirk widen and started walking a bit, though I didn't make any turns without knowing exactly where to go.

"For your own sake, Kol, I do hope that your fun was limited to things of a magical nature," I heard Klaus tell him, though his tone sounded more amused than anything else. "She will find out before the day is over if it wasn't, I'm sure."

I heard a breath pass through Kol, one that almost sounded like a scoff, but when I spun back to face him, there was a massive grin across his lips. "Is that what this is?"

"Oh, are you really gonna go there?" I folded my arms over my chest. "You threatened to kill an entire restaurant full of people!"

I saw something bright, resembling a flame that had just been ignited, but it was masked behind arrogance, behind the pieces of Kol that found pleasure in being so wanted by someone that she might dare want him all to herself. "Not the worst thing I've done in my life. Actually, the thing that got this tomb sealed was me slaughtering half of a church pariah."

My jaw dropped momentarily, but it occurred to me what he was doing, turning the subject around entirely so that he didn't have to answer the unspoken question. "And then what was it you said? _'The only reason Damon's still alive is because you care about him.'_ "

The poor attempt I had at mimicking his accent only made him laugh harder, even had Elijah and Klaus laughing in the moment. "You're horrible at accents, darling. Maybe you'll get better over time."

"Hold up a minute." Klaus cut his laughter off, holding a single hand up, but his eyes were absolutely glowing with a dark humor that was familiar to him. "You slept with Damon Salvatore?"

I saw the corners of Kol's eyes tighten, but seriously? He did _not_ want to start with me. If he was changing the subject, what exactly was this playhouse of his? Were we going to go inside and find evidence of some of the sexual horrors he had mentioned, such as making a woman drink the blood of her friend?

Probably not because he ran with witches in the playhouse, and they couldn't be compelled. I was honestly surprised that they wanted anything to do with him since most witches I had come across hated vampires, especially the Original family of them.

Then again, there was Greta and Maddox, who worked with Klaus to break his hybrid curse, and then Luka and his father, who worked with Elijah to save Greta from something she didn't need saving from. Witches weren't all so loyal and bound to the spirits that they just hated vampires.

Prisca and Shea were absolutely perfect examples of that.

"Yeah, long time ago." I let my smirk widen, which narrowed his eyes further. "Maybe I'm just drawn in by darkness because this was when he was still killing a lot of people."

His lips pressed. "Do you want me to kill him?"

"No." That was absolutely the last thing I wanted, but I knew that no matter how much we talked about this, Kol would never actually kill him. I wouldn't put it past him to torment him some more, or maybe compel him to forget all about it—I was genuinely surprised he hadn't already—but in the end, he wouldn't kill him because I cared about him.

Still, for Damon's sake, it was probably best that we stopped talking about it.

Klaus had other ideas, however, and his smile was arrogant. Everything about his body language spoke of the arrogance of the youngest two Mikaelson brothers. Finn and Elijah were more proper, less arrogant in their ways, but Klaus and Kol were absolutely arrogant and smug any chance they got.

"What is it about Damon Salvatore that women are so crazy about?" he asked, and his eyes darted from his brother's pissed off expression to my own.

I rubbed my dry lips together and used my tongue to wet them, to cause less friction between them. "Um, well, for me, I was drunk, tired of my friends telling me I needed to get laid because of my dormant werewolf curse making me angry all the time, and Damon was trying to get over my sister."

His brow scrunched. "So he slept with her twin sister . . . ?"

I held my hands up. "I don't know. I didn't question it. I just rolled with it." I focused on Kol now, whose mind was clearly trying to stay focused, trying to _not_ think about everything that was currently being spoken about. "Hey, you changed the subject."

"What does it matter?" he asked, with a bit more bitterness than I think he intended. The moment the question was practically barked out at me, a soft sigh followed, and he was suddenly in front of me, reaching out to touch the skin of my face. "She died decades ago, I'm sure."

"Ah ha!" His eyes widened more than my smirk could, and I just patted the side of his face lightly. "That's all I wanted to know, if that was why it _really_ called your playhouse."

"No. That's just what it became. Once." He let out a loud groan, and his hand fell back down by his side. "We've _really_ gotten off track."

That was a fair point. This was not the time or place for this. Right now, we needed to do what we came for and get back to Phoenix before the Gemini had a chance to find the home, without us there to defend them any way we could.

They were just vampires. Killing them would be easy enough for a powerful coven of witches.

Kol led the way with memory alone, without missing a turn or having to think back. I wondered how many times he had gone there before Klaus daggered him, but he probably couldn't even count. I imagined it was probably a safe house of sorts for him.

He pulled the heavy stone door of the tomb open, but I was the first to step inside. Had the spell somehow still been up, I at least would've been able to remove it. It wasn't how we wanted it to go because Marcel didn't need to know anything more about me than he already did, but we would do whatever it took to protect the twins.

There was a much larger space than I imagined when we stepped into the large tomb. It was . . . nothing that I expected, though maybe I should have. This was like the strangest looking science lab I had ever seen, with outdated equipment that still somehow seemed better than anything a school science lab might have. More than the scientific equipment scattered about on counters, there were objects, things that didn't necessarily seem "magical" in nature more than they just seemed like cultural objects, artifacts collected over time that only someone who had an infinite amount of time could amass.

I turned back to Kol with widened eyes, whose smile was marvelous. I hadn't really thought about how much he might have missed this place, and I wasn't entirely sure it was the place. It might've been the memories, the dark objects which allowed him to get the closest to magic he had been since turning. I almost felt bad about the fact that I could still use magic, as I'd gladly give my siphoning up and to Kol if it was possible.

I enjoyed being able to use magic, to be able to defend myself and my family, but if Kol could have the same ability to defend our family, I'd give it up somehow, if I could.

To bring my wandering thoughts back in, I gave Kol the best smile I could, but in the middle of the room we were in, it was simply made more apparent how much different Kol and I really were.

He had a thousand years of life and experience behind him, and what did I have? I was eighteen years old and somehow suddenly one of the most powerful immortal creatures in existence. I wasn't stronger than the rest of the Originals, not physically, but would that change when I activated my werewolf curse?

I didn't know when it became certain in my mind that I would, but I jumped far away from the thought and focused on the differences, focused on my lack of life and experience that he didn't have. He had lived so many lifetimes, and I was still on my first.

"This place has more culture than I do in my left pinkie," I informed him, though I gave him the best smirk I could.

"You're young, love." His eyes were bright, illuminating all the dark thoughts that had started racing in the back of my mind until they vanished into memories. I loved that he could do that, make me forget all the bad even if just for a moment in time. "You'll get there. I'll see to it myself when this is all over."

There it was again, another reminder of the forever that we had in front of us. It had my smile coming out across my face so widely that I wondered if it would've stung my cheeks had I been human, but I _wasn't_ anymore. I was a vampire who could smile as widely as I wanted, whenever I wanted.

The smile was short lived, however, because suddenly, I heard it. I heard a sound that I wasn't prepared to hear, the sound that I didn't think of trying to tune out with the rush of everything else going on. We had come early in the morning, hoping to avoid any people who might come along, but I could hear it, the sound of a heart beating loud inside of someone's chest.

It wasn't a normal beat, that of someone simply passing by. It pounded inside someone's chest, thickening their pulse and thumping against the veins to the point that it was almost an echo inside of my mind.

I had to swallow the saliva building up inside my mouth, and my eyes darted to the entrance of the room, towards the source of the sound.

The woman who stood there could barely be called a woman. I wondered if she was even eighteen. She just looked so young and innocent, wearing a white dress with dark hair that fell lightly down her shoulders, but there was darkness in her eyes that didn't make sense for someone her age.

What had happened to her? What made her so hostile all of the sudden?

It wasn't until Marcel stepped into view as well that I realized something was going wrong, something we hadn't accounted for.

This was a trap.

* * *

 **A/N: When I sent this chapter to my little sister for her to read, she got so mad at me for not already having the next chapter written up. Apparently it's a cliffhanger? :)**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!**


	39. 38: A Broken Seal

"We are not your lovers.  
We are not your friends.  
Forget what you believe in  
'Cause this is the end.

You can't find nothing at all  
When there's nothing there all along.  
I'm everything that you're not,  
Which is what makes you,  
What makes you, want me so."

 _Little Death_ : You Me at Six

* * *

I was just the first to notice that we weren't alone, but it was only a brief moment before the others did as well. Elijah had the calmest reaction, though the anger was quite apparent in the way his eyes tightened, in the stiff muscles throughout his posture.

Kol set fire in the darkest ways, with his teeth barred so tightly that his lips started curling back on their own. He didn't have to try and escape to understand what was happening, that this was the Claire witch who had removed the seal—and put it right back once we were inside.

There was rage burning through Klaus, locking the muscles of his jaw, and he stepped towards the seal, to stare face-to-face with the man that he considered family. "You will regret this, Marcel. We didn't come to hurt anyone."

Marcel expected the kind of reaction, but there was actually something that was almost soft in his features, something that hinted at remorse. "I'm sorry, but when you come asking to have the gold dagger made, I'm a bit worried. You can't come back to town and throw things out of order, and magic's forbidden in this town, although I admit. I'm curious how you planned to do it with nothing but four vampires."

The fact that he took this risk, that he really believed this might save him, showed ignorance he was going to regret. I made it up in my mind in that moment that I was going to make him pay for this. My mind was racing, trying to come up with ways to do that, but none of it mattered until the seal was gone.

I stepped up next to Klaus and stared right into the eyes of the teenage girl, who couldn't be any older than Jeremy—if that. "Hey, so, we haven't met, but you decided I needed to be locked here?"

"It doesn't matter who you are." Her voice was flat, but the innocence in the sound, the youth, was everything I expected. "I know _what_ you are."

I let out a breath and nodded. "Right. I'm a vampire, just like the man standing beside you."

"You were just collateral damage," Marcel spoke up, but I refused to look away from this girl, which I think had been his intentions. "Sorry. I have to protect my people."

I folded my arms over my chest. "It would really be in your best interests to drop the seal."

This wasn't the kind of response I think she expected, but she felt the urge to feel cocky about the situation, to feel _safe_. It was almost comical, or at least it might've been if everything inside of me wasn't screaming for me to just kill her. "No, I think it'd be in my best interest to do the opposite of that."

I found myself smirking, and for once, instead of running from the darkness, I embraced it, let it show in my facial features without actually bringing out the vampire face that I wasn't comfortable with yet. "I warned you."

"What can you do to me?" she scoffed, and her arrogance only shimmered, in the face of what she thought were empty threats. "You're stuck over there until a Claire witch breaks the seal."

"Cute. You think that matters." I didn't let their confusion stop me from placing my hands against the seal, subtly. I kept them by my side, to not make a big spectacle of it all, and I could feel it, the rush of the seal adding to the magic already inside of my veins.

I wasn't really prepared for how much magic I would have after becoming an Original vampire, how strong my magic would be, and anything more was almost just overkill.

With the gold dagger, however, I would have something to use it on, something that required a lot of power to make.

Keeping my hands by my side served its purpose. Marcel was too busy looking between the four of us to notice the red glow of my hands, and this girl was too young and cocky to think there was even anything that could be done.

The first time I removed the magic from the seal, it took time to figure it out, to learn how to siphon it away, but I wasn't the novice that I once was. I was stronger, more powerful, and with that power, I was able to fully rip it away in a matter of seconds.

I didn't hesitate to use the magic to bring them both towards me, through the now lowered seal, and I had never seen so much _fear_ before. They had known that what they were doing was dangerous, but they had believed their plan fool proof, that nothing would be able to stop them from leaving us there.

That was what they got for betraying us, for no real reason in sight.

With one hand around the girl's neck and the other around Marcel's, lifting the seal back for an added precaution took focus, only a few moments of it. I remembered the spell that I needed, the boundary spell, and I lifted it up around the door, keeping anyone who might want to escape inside until I was finished with them.

With that safely in place, I focused on Marcel, focused on staring into his eyes, but he wasn't relenting, wasn't letting the fear show. "I'd like you to rip your heart from your chest."

He snarled, and his hands came to try and grab mine, to try and remove my hand from around his neck. "Go to hell."

"That's rich, coming from the man who just moments ago called me collateral damage." I smirked at the sight of the rage exploding across his dark stare. "Well, you're clearly on vervain, which is good. I really didn't want you to kill yourself, although I don't know if it would work that way."

I hadn't thought much about telling him to kill himself, but if I compelled him to kill himself, would it count as me killing him? Would it trigger my werewolf curse?

Honestly, if I was gonna have to suffer through the guilt of knowing that I compelled a man to kill himself, I damn well hoped something good came out of it. There was no real reason to keep the werewolf side dormant, other than the fact that it required me to kill someone.

I used my grip around his neck to crush it, sending him falling to the ground in a second. The girl began screaming, probably fear for her friend and maybe even her own life, and she started fighting me. I could feel something painful creeping in, breaking through the safety of my mind.

To stop her pain infliction spell in its tracks, I began siphoning the magic away from her. It cut off her ability to use it, as it was leaving her body and coming to mine, and it effectively kept her paralyzed, weakened even. I didn't plan to drain it all away. Shea and Prisca had warned me about that, but I _was_ going to take some, enough to weaken her for a time.

Her screams of fear didn't compare to the way she started shrieking in _pain_ , and I could feel it resonate through me. The rush of the magic stifled the way her screams tore me apart from the inside out. I hated hearing it, hated seeing myself this way, but this was what they had forced me to do, to _act_ without much thought about it all.

The dormant parts of me were trying to come out, to insist I siphon until there was nothing left, but the magic smothered it, the rush of it all. There was so _much_ inside of this tiny little girl, and I sort of understood why she was so cocky about it. This was more magic than one person should have inside of their body.

This went on for some time, longer than I thought, but I could feel it draining, could feel the small amounts pooling through her veins. I had taken so much, and I could feel my hands trembling from it. It was moving through me faster than anything else ever had, faster than the rush of power from a fresh feed—especially the night before, right from the vein.

I ripped my hands from her arms, and she fell to the ground, weakened. She was struggling to even breathe, and I could feel my heart crumbling. What was this? Who was this? Where was this coming from?

A thought, a horrible thought, crossed my mind, but I shut it down. There was absolutely no reason in the world to shut off my humanity, even if Klaus believed it was the only way I might do what needed to be done for the twins.

This had all been _me_ , Darcy . . . and I wanted to own this decision, these choices. I didn't want to have some lame excuse to try and comfort myself because the truth was, I was going to hurt later. I was going to regret every moment and every choice I was currently making.

I just didn't let that stop me _now_ , when the choices had been made.

I knelt down in front of her, ripping her teary eyed stare right up to me, and there was so much darkness behind the pain, so much fire. It almost made me smile, to see someone so ready to fight for herself, but it was also kind of sad. She had no idea what she was up against, but she thought herself powerful enough to stand against it anyways?

That was a dangerous way to think.

"I will kill him if you don't help me make this dagger," I informed her. "We need two witches. Kol can explain to you exactly what I need from you. You do it, and we won't kill either of you. We'll pretend that this didn't happen, that you guys just opened the seal and went on about your day."

"We will absolutely not do that."

I did my best to ignore Klaus, to focus on nothing but the far too fiery girl in front of me. "Or you don't help me, and I kill you both."

I stood to my feet, giving her a few moments to think it through, and I turned back away from her, towards the three brothers standing behind me. There was surprise in Elijah's widened eyes, and Klaus looked amused, behind the rage that was still there.

Kol, on the other hand . . . the fire in his eyes was much different than the anger I had seen just a couple minutes before. He wasn't angry at all, though he was definitely fired up.

This was it, the new Darcy that was showing herself. The Darcy that awakened fully after removing the dagger from Kol's chest, after having children and becoming a vampire . . . apparently this was her.

What choice did I have, though? They tried to lock us away, to seal us in here without justifiable reason. Marcel said he didn't have a choice, but of course he did. He was clearly running the city, so all he had to do was ignore us, to let us do our business in town and leave.

Yet he didn't. He chose to display his power, for maybe all to see. He chose to have a chance brag about the fact that he had three of the monstrous Mikaelson siblings trapped for good, maybe further cementing the fact that _he_ was in charge.

That was all I could see, some stupid display of power. I was absolutely going to make him regret that, without anyone dying completely.

I folded my arms over my chest and fought the urge to smirk at him. Truth was, I didn't want him to be turned on by this side of me, but of course he was. The good and the bad, we loved one another, and that wasn't going to change no matter how much bad there might really be.

"You have to show this young lady what she needs to do," I reminded him. "It was a long time ago, but I remember what you taught me about all of this."

His eyes smirked more than his lips did, and that set my blood on fire in the best way, no matter how inappropriate it was in the current setting. "I'm impressed you remembered that we needed two witches for this."

I shrugged. "Well, I'll do whatever it takes."

That was all the reminder Kol seemed to need, to remember what we were here for, and he was able to put it all to the side. He was able to remember that we came to New Orleans for one reason and one reason only. The rest had been fun in between the waiting.

He helped the young witch to her feet, though she was very resistant to his offer for help. "What is your name?" Her only response was to glare at him, but he held his cool relatively well, considering the fact that he was _Kol_ , the man with little to no patience. "I can just call you girl, but that seems a bit rude."

"Davina," she finally said, maybe when it occurred to her that not telling us her name was senseless.

"Okay. Well, Davina, I'm sorry for this lovely woman's violence." I didn't expect his gaze to move away from her, to come over and find me, but his eyes were melted. Surely he knew how conflicted I was about it all, but he still seemed proud of me, proud of the woman that I had become out of force. "If we're going to swap roles like this, love, you should at least warn me. I was in no way prepared for this."

I rubbed my lips together and did my best to smile, but I didn't imagine more than a grimace showed. "Kol?"

"Right." He turned back to Davina and cleared his throat. "What you're going to do is simple. This requires magic, lots of it, and I haven't come across any witches who can do it alone. If any could, I wouldn't be surprised if Darcy could, but as far as I know, it takes two. We're going to use you since you've so kindly come to help. All you have to do is let Darcy draw power from you. She knows the spell, so she can do it."

"Can't she just take the magic from her anyways?" Klaus asked. "I don't see a point in using this woman at all."

"If I siphon too much from a witch or vampire, they die." I focused back at Davina, whose eyes had widened from the moment Klaus mentioned me taking the magic away from her. She must not have realized that I was taking her magic from her earlier, probably thought I was just doing a spell to weaken her somehow. "I really don't wanna kill you. You have no idea how much I don't wanna kill you, but you're in luck. I'm not siphoning from you anymore than I already have."

When Kol told me about the gold dagger, about the possibility of making a dagger that could take down Klaus, I learned as much about that as I could. I learned what I would need to know if we ever got the chance to make it so that I could make it.

Now, I found myself less eager to make it, but that didn't mean I didn't remember exactly what had to be done. With the power of the paragon diamond, the power I had taken from Davina, and the power she had left to let me borrow without siphoning it all away, I was able to make Kol's wildest dream come true.

I watched the dagger catch fire, as it was supposed to do when the silver was made gold. I watched Kol's eyes widen in amazement, watched him stare at the dagger on the ground until the flames eventually subsided away.

And a gold dagger lay on the ground, at our feet.

A sharp breath passed between Kol's lips, which were parted but still turned into a smile larger than life. There seemed to be some guilt trying to cloud over the amazement, the guilt because of what we were doing this for, but this had been a long time coming.

This was exactly what the family needed, as horrible we might feel about it now and later when it was actually happening.

Kol's expression was everything one might expect from watching someone's century old dream coming true, even if the intentions were somewhat different than they had once been. He still intended to use it on Klaus, but it wasn't against his will, to take some power away from him.

It was intended to save the family that he had once thought irreparable, to save the two pieces of light in the middle of all the darkness.

Now that it was over, now that the moments of elation were passing, it was time to face the music of what was happening.

They knew I was a vampire. Because of all that I had done, they knew that I was a vampire who could siphon magic from outside sources. With the Gemini hunting us, with what Shea and Prisca had told me about how nature viewed siphons, I knew that the best thing for everyone was for Marcel and Davina to forget my ability to use magic entirely.

There was no way to compel Davina. Witches couldn't be compelled. Vampires could be compelled easily enough, but witches? They couldn't, no matter how hard a vampire tried.

Everyone was so focused on the gold dagger in the floor that they didn't even notice when I disappeared across the room, to grab one of the random bowls I found lying about the room.

In the same few seconds, I used magic to pull the dagger off of the floor, into my hands. It was the only thing around I could think to use to draw blood, and blood was what we needed—her blood, to be exact.

Davina was confused and scared, but she was weakened enough that she didn't even think to stop me when I grabbed onto her hand and sliced the dagger across it. That got her attention, and she tried to pull her hand away.

I was a vampire, however, and she was just a witch, a witch very much weakened by the fact that there was barely any magic in her system at the moment. It would come back with time and rest, but right now, I didn't even imagine she had enough magic to do a pain infliction spell on me.

Tears welled in her eyes. "What are you doing?!"

I closed my eyes and struggled to breathe, struggled to face what I was actually doing. "The less people who know that I'm a vampire who uses magic, the better."

"Why are you taking my blood?"

There were a million things I could've said, maybe to make myself feel better or to make her feel better, but the situation was grim. It was the only option available to me, however, at least the only option that didn't end with someone dead for good.

This was what it was going to take. I was gonna have to do things I might not normally do, things I wouldn't even consider. In the end, this was how I would have to survive.

Was Klaus right? Was there any way to survive without leaving behind bodies?

 _Yes_. I would show him. If nothing else, I would give her the choice over her life and her death.

There wasn't much fight she could put up, but it didn't matter. With enough of her blood inside the bowl to complete the transition, I cloaked myself long enough to get behind her, to ensure she didn't actually see what was coming.

I bit into my wrist and appeared behind her, pressing it into her mouth. She squirmed and fought, which only brought tears falling down my face, but I didn't relent.

Witches couldn't be compelled . . . but vampires could.

There was blood in her mouth, blood in her system, but I didn't plan to give her much chance to protest.

Kol, however, realized exactly what it was that I was doing, and he snapped her neck for me.

I didn't just let her body fall into the floor, didn't just discard her like a waste of life. This was gonna catch up to me, but for the safety of myself, of my twins . . . they couldn't remember what I was, or even that I was an Original vampire. All they needed to know was that Kol had a girlfriend, and she was a vampire. Just another Petrova doppelgänger turned into a vampire.

I laid her down in the floor, as gently as I could, and I set the bowl far enough away from her that she would see it but wouldn't knock it over when she frantically woke up. I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes, but the more I tried, the more that seemed to fall.

 _You have to do this, Darcy. For Alastor. For Theia._

The less people knew about me, the better. If I was anything more than a vampire, what kind of dangers would that bring to my children? They already had targets on their back, simply because they were children of one of the Mikaelsons, and then you add in the enemies Kol had on his own . . . they didn't need the targets brightened for any reason.

Kol knelt down behind me and placed his hand on my back, giving me the only comfort appropriate in the moment. It didn't seem like much, but it gave me reassurance. I was able to dry my tears, to focus on the reasons we were even in New Orleans.

Why couldn't they have just left us be? Why did he have to do this?

"Did we have to kill the witch?" Klaus let out a loud sigh behind us, though there wasn't much genuine emotion in it. "Marcel seemed fond of her, and I'm afraid he won't forgive me for that."

I tried to swallow, but it was still hard, in the face of the horrible things I had done. "If there's one thing I learned on the road, it's that the less people know I'm a siphon, the better. Add on the fact that I'm a vampire, and I'm sure being an Original vampire makes it worse, but she can't know that I'm a witch. Neither of them can know that I'm anything more than a vampire."

It was strange, the timing of it all. I got the words out, and Marcel was suddenly waking up, nearly jumping to his feet the instant that he did. I don't know if he expected us to still be around when he woke up, but it didn't really matter.

All anger disappeared the moment he saw Davina's dead body, saw the bowl of blood laying nearby.

He was over beside her in a second, pulling her into his embrace before the tears even had a chance to begin falling down his face. Though he held onto Davina, I think the blood gave him some comforts, comfort that she would at least wake back up.

The pain darkened from his eyes, at least from the moment, and was replaced by the same anger I had seen when he told me to go to hell, when I held him by the throat and told him to rip his own heart out.

His rage wasn't directed to me, not this time. Instead, it was towards Klaus, who he just automatically assumed was the one to do this. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do that, Marcellus."

My eyes fell, lowering until they saw nothing but the floor beneath my boots. "That was me."

"I see why you hang around them."

Though it hurt to hear his rage, hear the things that I needed to face—that I had just acted like one might expect a Mikaelson to act—I didn't let the pain take over me, not right now.

Instead, I snorted. "Okay, to be fair, you two tried to trap us all in here for eternity probably. Let's be honest with ourselves."

"Why did you do this?" he demanded. "Why go to all this trouble?"

"Maybe the idea of killing a random stranger doesn't appeal to me," I said, and my expression emptied when I turned to look at him. "I didn't want her dead, but she couldn't be a witch because she can't remember that I can use magic. Neither of you can remember that I use magic."

I was surprised to see him lay Davina back down, to stand to his feet and step towards me. Kol was the first to rise back, to step face-to-face with the man he already hated, but to see him threatening me the way that he was so stupidly ready to do, Kol wasn't gonna sit down and let that happen, even if I could more than handle myself.

"What are you gonna do?" he challenged. "Kill me? Drain me of my vervain? Go ahead."

I stood up now, too, moving myself between the two before they could get any closer to one another. Neither seemed willing to back down, but this wasn't getting anything accomplished.

"No one's dying," I disagreed. "Look, I didn't wanna do this, but I don't have another choice. If there were more time, we could sit around, have a few drinks, and let the vervain just leave your system. Time, however, is not on our side, so here it is."

The first part of this required him to be held down, to be in agonizing and crippling pain. He had to struggle to feel anything but pain, otherwise he might fight me. There might be resistance to what I needed done.

With him on the ground, with the blood vessels in his brain exploding over and over again, healing over and over again, it was the perfect way into his system with the magic I planned to do. It was considered dark, though it was supposed to be intended for good. I didn't care if the spirits liked why I was using the spell, didn't care if the reasons were considered pure or dark.

Ripping my way into Marcel's bloodstream with magic alone, I was able to rip the vervain from his system. I didn't really know how it worked, but I knew that the vervain had to be put into someone else. It couldn't just go away, so I ripped it from his system and put it into mine.

I wasn't entirely prepared for the amount of vervain he actually ingested, but I guess he had to take every precaution.

With one hand gripping Kol's arm, I used my rage to push me through. I used the darker instincts within myself to stay on my feet, to not let the vervain weaken me. I couldn't be weak, not right now.

All he felt was the pain infliction, and maybe he felt something being ripped from him. He just wouldn't understand what.

"There. All done." I ripped him back up to his feet, grabbed onto him so that he had no choice but to look right into my eyes. "You're not gonna remember that I'm a vampire who can use magic. You're not gonna remember that I'm an Original vampire. You're just gonna remember that you and Davina opened the door, that the trap you set didn't work, and Davina was made a vampire because of what you tried to do."

* * *

 **A/N: Dark Darcy is a bit fun to write, but the dark parts of her don't come out often. Twice that I can think of thus far, and I'm working on part 3 right now. So it's not like Darcy is about to completely just flip upside down. Don't worry. :) She's still Darcy.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy! :)**


	40. 39 The Mother

"Why don't you carry me?  
I can't save me.  
I am crazy  
Without you.

It takes horns to hold up my halo,  
And strength to get through the fight.  
Now I'm laying my cards on the table,  
Praying that everything will be alright."

 _Carry Me_ : Papa Roach

* * *

I waited for Davina to wake up, to compel her the same way that I had compelled Marcel. She drank the blood willingly, stating that she was going to make me pay for what I had done. There was more to it than what appeared on the surface, more than just a young girl being turned into a vampire, but I didn't have the time to stick around and ask questions.

We had to get back to Phoenix before the Gemini found the house, before they realized that we were gone and that the twins weren't there.

Now we found ourselves back at the airport, waiting for Elijah to get off the phone to go through security. If Elijah was on the phone, we knew something was going wrong, so we didn't start the journey through the terminal until we knew it was the right thing to do.

Had the Gemini found the home in Phoenix?

Klaus had disappeared to feed, so for the moment, Kol and I were alone in the airport. It had started normally enough, but the pain of everything I had done was catching up to me, quickly. I found myself curling into his embrace, without a word actually having to be said.

That was where I found myself, where my mind evaluated everything that I had done. Davina couldn't have been compelled to forget if she was a witch, so making her into a vampire was the only option. I always took pride in seeing multiple sides of a story, but I couldn't this time. I couldn't understand why Marcel might've tried to lock us in there, why turning Davina was such a bad thing—aside from the fact that I took a young girl's life away from her. I couldn't see why they were so upset to lose her humanity the way that they had.

Did she not want it? There was a time that Elena didn't either, that she would've rather died than be a vampire, but she had embraced it now. Maybe Davina would, too.

Didn't make me feel any less horrible about it. I had _turned_ her, without asking. I just acted to protect my family, protect myself.

"Did I do the right thing?"

I had meant it to be a thought, but it came out as a question anyways. I couldn't put the words back into my mind once they had come out, so I instead embraced it, prepared myself for whatever answer he might give me.

"It doesn't matter, Darcy," he murmured, but his eyes focused back to me, focused on every detail of my face that he never liked to miss. "You acted. You did what had to be done."

I hadn't said it out-loud yet, but I had to face it. There wasn't time to bury it and linger on about it. I had to face this pain head-on so that it might go away, that I might could focus on what had to be done now.

"I killed someone," I whispered, but the tears I expected to blur my vision didn't. I had cried on the way to the airport, hadn't said much of anything to anyone, but they had left me alone. They left me to deal with it.

I say that, but Kol held me the entire time. He absolutely didn't leave me alone with what I had done, but nothing had been said, yet I didn't cry. The words didn't make the pain flare any more vibrantly than it was already scraping away at me.

" _I_ killed someone," he corrected, though he leaned closer to press his face against mine, to get himself closer to me. "You just ensured she had a chance to wake up as a vampire."

I felt my face scrunching as I thought back to that moment, the way my mind had responded to Kol acting, so perfectly in tune with me. It was actually sweet on the inside, that he knew what was happening and acted without question to kill her so that I didn't have to, but I remembered the thoughts that crossed my mind, the very fact that I had come to terms with.

I should've been the one to snap Davina's neck.

"Maybe I should have." I took a deep breath, but for once, I didn't want to see the way he responded to hearing this. I didn't want to know if he liked the idea or was hurt by it. I just wanted to focus on _my_ thoughts, on the choices I was making. "Maybe that would've made things easier."

He wasn't going to allow that, not entirely, and his hand came to cup beneath my chin, to turn my stare up to his so that I could see for myself: the good and the bad balanced out. Of course he wanted me to kill someone so that I wasn't suffering, but he didn't want me to suffer the pain that would come emotionally.

It wouldn't have changed anything, if I had been the one to break her neck or him. I would've felt just as guilty all the same because it was still my choices that got her killed. _I_ chose to kill her and make her into a vampire.

"What are you saying, love?"

"I made the choice to make her a vampire," I whispered, and I saw understanding pushing out both the good and the bad within the perfect features of his face. "I made the choice to end her life, so maybe . . . maybe I should've been the one to kill her."

"Okay." He moved his hand from my chin to rest along my cheek, to give me the only real comfort he could for the time, in the current setting we found ourselves in. "I will remember that."

"Thank you." I tried not to melt into the touch of his hand, but right now, I absolutely couldn't help it. Dissolving into Kol had become habit. It had become one of the best feelings in the world, and every nerve beneath my skin came alive with such a simple gesture. It was almost something that just happened.

I didn't know if I deserved to feel better, though. I made the choice to kill someone. I forced her into a life of vampirism that she clearly didn't want.

 _I_ did that, to a girl no older than Jeremy.

"Last night . . . ." Thinking to the night before, the magical Valentine's Day that was filled with darkness that I had so easily overlooked, the tears I expected earlier surfaced, blurring my vision slightly. "You said that I was still in there, behind all the mess and confusion, but I-I don't think that I am. I think Darcy Gilbert died. When . . . when it was all going down, all I could think about was how my choices were the only way. I didn't try to look for others. I did what seemed like the best option, and I didn't care how horrible it was. I just did it, and damn the consequences of that."

"That's how I know that you _are_ still there." He rubbed his thumb across his cheeks, and despite the pain clouding over his eyes, a genuine sort of smile formed across his soft lips. "The fact that you found the best solution for everyone without killing anyone. It would've been easy to kill Davina and Marcel. You had plenty reason, yet you took the more complicated route, the one that gave them both a chance with their lives. You _hurt yourself_ to give them a chance at their life."

"I took away her humanity." The tears cascading down my face were cold against my burning skin, but I couldn't tell if it was Kol's touch that had me on fire or the pain inside, scorching away at me. "Elena never wanted to be a vampire. She was surrounded by them, but she would've rather died than become a vampire. It's different now, but don't you think that if Davina _wanted_ to be a vampire, she would've been already?"

"She might've been going to wait until she was older," he pointed out. "Honestly, Darcy, I can come up with a million different reasons why she wasn't a vampire yet, but the truth is, it doesn't matter. You gave her a chance to live, and she took it. She clearly preferred that to the alternative, or she wouldn't have completed the transition."

"She did that because she was going to find a way to make me pay for what I had done."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't imagine she actually has any idea what she's going up against. She was a bit overconfident, in my opinion. She wasn't even scared of you, had no idea who or what you were. She just assumed that you couldn't do anything to her."

"She had a lot of power," I admitted. "A _lot_. I took way more than one person should have."

"That probably explains her confidence then." He let his hand fall from my face, to wrap his arm around my shoulders, and he pulled me into him, into the comfort of his embrace. "I know it's hard, love, but contrary to what you might think, you are still there. I saw it today. We all did. The Darcy Gilbert we all know and love made herself very apparent when she did what she had to do to protect her family, yet she still managed to save two lives along the way."

"How can you say that?" I asked. "I killed her."

"Yet here you sit, reminding yourself of that. You sit here mourning her death as if she died, but she chose to live. You could've easily killed the both of them, but you gave them freedom while ensuring your secret was safe." He leaned over to press his lips against the side of my head, giving me more comfort than I felt I deserved. "I never cared to think about the mistakes I made, the horrible things that I did, so I never cared to remember the next time. You do. You can't expect yourself to be perfect just because you have until this point. You're a vampire, Darcy—an _Original_ vampire. Your emotions are heightened. Everything is out of control, and to top it all off, there are people trying to murder your children. You're expecting everything to be the same as it once was, but it's not. You're not, but you wanna know something? I saw something in you today that I had never seen before."

"What was that?" I asked, but I felt like I already knew the answer. I knew it in my head, knew the things that I had felt that I never had before. _Darkness_.

The sweet and innocent Darcy Gilbert that he fell in love with was gone. She had become this person that I didn't know, and I was afraid of her, afraid of what she might do. I was immortal, unable to die by normal means, and I was a witch? An Original vampire? A _werewolf_?

It was the reason the twins were considered abominations, because they had the potential to be all three. Neither had shown any signs of even having magic yet, so there was no way to know if either of them were siphons. Still, the idea that they _could_ be scared enough people into believing that murdering two months old _infants_ was a justifiable decision.

"Confidence." It was the last word I expected to hear, but he meant it. It showed in the light of his eyes, in the smile that formed brighter across his lips. "I saw a woman who wasn't afraid to be herself, who wasn't afraid of what she was or who she was. She was free, and that was beautiful."

I _had_ acted pretty confidently, if I looked back at it. I didn't second guess anything that I did, didn't second guess my ability to do certain things. I just acted without fear, without wondering that I might not be strong enough. I _was_ , and I knew that. No longer was I the strange and scared witch who was too afraid of my magic to learn how to use it. I _did_ know how to use it, powerfully.

It was only made better by the power I had stolen from Davina. Most times, my body might've already used up what I had gotten, but it still lingered beneath my skin, the raw power that I had stolen.

There really was something more going on, something that I didn't see, and one day, I might have to look into it and try and understand.

How could one little girl have that much power?

Klaus made his way back over to us, ripping me from my thoughts, but Elijah moved quickly behind him. His actions were stiff, his eyes focused, and he came over to his bag to dig out all four of the tickets.

As the responsible one, it only made sense that he keep up with everyone's.

He didn't take them out of the bag and hand them to each of us. Instead, he turned sharply away from us all and walked in the completely opposite direction of our terminal, over towards one of the desks lined with receptionists and computers where one might go to buy a ticket.

"There seems to be some sort of error," he told her, as politely as whatever had him moving the way that he was would allow. "We need to be on the flight to Atlanta."

I could see the woman taking the tickets, staring at them in confusion, and there was protest in her eyes immediately. They were round-trip tickets, from Phoenix to New Orleans and then back.

"We need tickets to Atlanta."

Without being beside him to see what he was doing, I saw it in the receptionist's blanking expression. I saw her look from him and then to the computer, to type something in, and her fingers moved urgently.

"There you go. Four tickets to Atlanta." She slid them across the counter to him, and she gave him a polite smile. "Enjoy your flight."

Elijah spun sharply to face us, but we were all already on our feet, with our bags in hand and ready to go wherever he directed. I had been prepared for almost anything, except the sudden change of destinations like that.

Nothing was said as we moved through security, simply because we heard the overhead speakers calling for the flight to Atlanta to board. There were more than just a couple minutes to board, but we still didn't have long, and we had to get through security.

I barely even remembered to cloak the dagger as it went through the systems. I did, thank goodness, but with the confusion of the situation, the fear creeping its way through everything else, I almost forgot.

It wasn't until we were in the terminal, headed towards the plane, that anyone got a chance to ask questions. I didn't even know where to begin, but Kol did.

"Elijah, what is going on?"

Elijah didn't turn from his brother, only rubbed his lips together. "Shea just called and informed me that the Gemini showed up in Phoenix, but they left suddenly, after getting a call that the twins were in Atlanta."

Klaus knew to trust his brother's actions, no matter how strange they may seem, but even this surprised him. "What?"

"How would they know that?" Kol all but demanded.

We had prepared for a lot of scenarios when Elijah suddenly stood up and left to take the phone call. It was decided that he should take them privately, as we didn't want someone like Kol or the new Original vampire overhearing something and losing control of themselves—like having a meltdown when I realized that the cloaking spell I put on them suddenly stopped working?

When Elijah stood up, we knew something was wrong, or he was at least getting some sort of update on the status of things in Phoenix. I hadn't even considered the idea that the Gemini knew where the twins were, however, because I cloaked them. I knew it worked. It had worked when the twins and I were out on our own, so why would it suddenly not work this time?

I was stronger now. It should've worked _better_.

"The only thing Shea can figure out is that when we broke your neck and took Darcy down with him, the cloaking spell left the twins." He glanced back at me, briefly, but there wasn't anger or anything one might expect. He was simply rushed, ready to get to Atlanta. "The Gemini have found them and are on their way to Atlanta now. We should beat them. They're traveling from Phoenix. Our flight will be much shorter."

"Why don't they just leave?" Kol insisted. "Why aren't they moving?"

"Where are they to go, Kol?" Elijah asked. "There is no one else there who can cloak them, so anywhere they go, they can be found through whatever means the Gemini are finding them now. There's nowhere they can run."

"He's right." My eyes focused on the short distance between us and the plane, and I kept moving, but my mind was somewhere else. "Whatever's about to go down, it's going down soon."

"We can't run from this anymore," he agreed. "We have to eliminate this threat as soon as they get to town. We have to be ready."

This was it, what everything I had done had been for. On the outside, it was easy to say that the choice had been for me, but what did I care if people knew what I was? The only reason that I did was because I knew what it meant. I had the potential to be a tribrid, a tribrid who couldn't so easily die, so that meant that people would attack the ones around me who _could_ —i.e. the twins I had given birth two just over two months prior.

Before Kol came into my life, I did a lot of stupid things. I didn't do anything to protect myself, and I saw too much good in people. I still did, still saw hope for even the darkest people around me, but if I had learned nothing from this trip to New Orleans, it was who I was as a mother.

I would do anything to protect my children, even if it meant protecting myself in the process.

* * *

 **A/N: I have through chapter thirty something done on the outline for part 3, and I'm actually really excited to write it. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	41. 40: To Infinity and Beyond

"'You and I, against the world.'  
That's what you told me  
That night, in the terminal,  
As we were boarding,  
And I know you meant it.  
Holding my hand so tight as  
We flew, from Lafayette  
Back to Pacific time,  
And you lay ya head on my shoulder.  
Couple tears were shed over Arizona,  
An emotional roller coaster, yeah.

We ride the highs and lows.  
You'll never be alone,  
Even when your world explodes  
'Cause after all the smoke clears  
I will be right here. . .

. . . And when I hit the wall  
Back in December,  
I took my hardest fall,  
But we fell together."

 _Smoke Clears_ : Andy Grammer

* * *

Rebekah sent us the address to the condo she had rented for their stay in Atlanta. She didn't say how long she had intended to stay in Atlanta, but it didn't matter. There was nowhere left to run.

I was so grateful to see the faces of everyone who had left, but I didn't greet them, not first. I didn't imagine that anyone would mind, especially with Kol following right on my heels.

I didn't have to ask which room the twins were staying in. I could hear the soft and steady beats of their hearts. I could find them.

They were sound asleep, and I had no intentions of changing that. Still, I had to see them. I had to see the faces of the two angels that I was doing everything for, that I would give up everything for.

Kol had his arms around me the moment he stepped inside the door, closing it silently behind us. We had made the agreement that we would see the twins first, and this was an emotional moment.

I had sentenced a young girl to life as a vampire, without caring how harsh my actions were, but this was why, so they got to sleep peacefully without an understanding of the darkness around them.

When tears began falling down my face, I looked up to Kol, who had tears of his own staining his cheeks. It was beautiful to see, in the right moment. I hated seeing pained tears, anything but these sweet tears of joy, but something about seeing him this happy, so overwhelmed with joy that tears were the only ways to show it . . . it was amazing.

"We should go, so we don't wake them up."

I didn't know how long we had actually stood in the room, but by the time the two of us made it back, everyone was gathered around the center of the living room, where there were three large couches with enough room for everyone to sit comfortably.

There was also a phone in the center of the table, a phone that was on speaker. With Maisyn looking away from the phone, towards me, it was very easy to figure out who was on the phone—the Gemini twins.

I cleared my throat. "What are we supposed to do now?" Every eye turned to me in an instant, and there was silence on the other end, the silence that came with deep confusion. "Obviously we know what we have to do, but how do we even go about confronting the Gemini?"

"It will start somewhere public," Shea said, and I felt my brow pulling together. "They wouldn't dare go face-to-face with any of you without witnesses. They aren't stupid."

"So we confront them in public, but then what?"

"If we know our uncle, he's going to want to talk about all of this," Prisca spoke up. "He will want everything on the table, so if I had to guess, when someone confronts you out in the open, it will be to set up some sort of meeting elsewhere."

"So what are we to do?" Rebekah asked, but the stress of the situation was tightening the muscles of her face, bringing out fear that I hated seeing anyone feel. "Sit out in the open all day and just wait for someone to approach?"

Shea sighed. "Yes. That's pretty much all we can do."

It wasn't a pleasant thought, the idea of just dangling ourselves out there as bait, but it was what we had to all agree on, with the condition that some remain at home with the twins. There was no way in hell that we were going to let anyone anywhere near the twins, so I planned to use a barrier spell on the door, to trap whoever was guarding the twins and the twins inside the room.

No one was going to get through me to get to my kids.

I didn't watch as most people dispersed and went on to bed, but I was ripped from my thoughts by one person in particular, a certain blonde Mikaelson who at one point wasn't sure if she should like me or not.

She wrapped her arms around me, tightly enough that I felt her strong, Original vampire grip. "I'm glad to see you. Atlanta has many places I wanted to go shop, but it's just not fun alone anymore."

Despite everything going on, the imminent danger right around the corner, I smiled, and I found myself hugging her back. "There are people you can take with you, Bex. You didn't have to wait on me."

She pulled away from me abruptly, her stare emptying of all expression, but I saw the corners of her eyes tighten, focusing on me entirely. I didn't know what she was seeing, but I knew what she was saying without saying: there was no one here she wanted to go shopping with, at least not without me. She and Elena weren't mortal enemies anymore, but that didn't mean they were friends.

Rebekah only stared this way for a few moments before she suddenly cleared her throat. "Well, sleep well, darling. We'll go first thing in the morning. With any luck, our fun will lure the Gemini out."

It was hard not to smile as she stepped away, heading off to bed after barely saying goodnight to Kol. There were only a few people even left in the living room, but of course he was one of them.

Rebekah _liked_ me. It had been obvious enough before, but it was more than what it seemed. Our friendship had blossomed, but it had become more than that without notice. Klaus and Elijah had said that I was family, that I was a part of always and forever, so maybe they were right. I was the mother of the Mikaelson twins, the girlfriend of Kol, and the sister of Rebekah.

Was it wrong to consider her a sister? No. It was absolutely okay to call her that, especially with everything going on around us that she was fighting through _with_ us. No matter the dangers, no matter the fear, she was by our side, helping us do what needed to be done, and she would, always and forever.

Damon came over to hug me, and I tried not to melt into the hug. The last conversation Kol and I had about Damon hadn't exactly been a pleasant one, but he was a brother to me. The rest was just weird to think about more than anything else.

"It'll be okay." He pulled away to mess with my hair some, and I glared up at him. "It always is."

"I'm sure Caroline will love you sharing in her enthusiasm," I informed him, and he only laughed and released me.

I expected him to say something else, to linger more, but he didn't. With one loaded glance sent somewhere behind me, towards the man I knew that was behind me, he left the room.

What was that?

I started to ask, but I felt someone move behind me, felt someone standing so close that I could feel the warm breaths as they left his body. I spun sharply to face him, staring right up at the beautiful Kol Mikaelson, and the soft smile on his lips should've been expected.

But it wasn't. It was stunning, but more than that, it had my eyes rounding.

"Goodnight, love." He wrapped his arms around me, but this was the hug I melted into seamlessly. Hugging Damon was one thing, a comfort I enjoyed, but hugging Kol? It was something more, something I would never experience with anyone else in all of the world, throughout all of eternity. "Remember, there's a busy day ahead tomorrow."

"I know," I said, but my eyes were trying to take in every piece of him, every part of his expression. I didn't understand what was going on, why Damon abruptly left the way that he had, why he had stared at Kol, and why Kol was now leaving the room.

His eyes were just shimmering, with this . . . look. I didn't know what it was, but I had seen it once before, in the airport in New Orleans. I had seen it when he stared at me, while lost in whatever thoughts were rolling around inside of his mind.

Just when I believed that Kol couldn't make me feel any more important than he already did, when I let myself believe that he couldn't continue to surprise me with the love he had always had buried inside of him, he somehow did. With one stare, he had me feeling so good, inside and out, that I forgot about the bad. I forgot that we were about to face the Gemini, finally. I forgot that I had killed a woman.

None of that mattered. He was right here, by my side. All that mattered was that we would always come through it, together.

"What is that look?" I whispered.

His eyebrows rose, but his smile only grew. "I know it might seem foreign, but it's this crazy thing called bliss, the purest kind."

I had no idea what he was going to say to me, what answer he might've given, but I somehow wasn't prepared for that one. Of course I knew that I made Kol happy. Our family made him happy, and to see his family surrounding him now, as they should, of course that made him happy.

He didn't just say happy. He said bliss, the purest kind. That was something more than simply happy. He was nothing _but_ happy, living his life in bliss that he had never known. All the bad didn't matter.

"I, uh, I did that."

The sound of my sister's voice, my actual sister—the only blood relative that I even knew—had me spinning on my heels. It ripped me from the peace that consumed me, and I was able to focus on something else, something completely unrelated to Kol.

This was my sister, my twin sister.

I ran across the room and threw my arms around her, and I had to remind myself to be careful, that I was stronger than she was. Still, we both gripped one another tightly, the way that only two vampires could do.

"You did that?" I asked, and I pulled myself out of her arms, only to rub the tears from my eyes.

She had tears of her own, tears that she quickly wiped from existence, and she nodded. "Yeah. I-I miss you so much, Darcy. It feels like it's been forever since the two of us just sat down and talked."

"It has." I had the same thought the night that she left, but I hadn't thought about how much she might feel the same way. "So let's sit down. Let's talk."

There were three couches to choose from, but I found myself choosing the same one that Elena sat on, on the very cushion next to her. She was my sister, damn it, and if I wanted to curl up on the couch with my sister, I was going to do just that.

Elena laughed and wrapped her arms around me, holding me against her, and she used her hand to brush some of the hair behind my ears, exposing my face to her fully. "So when were you going to tell me who it was you lost your virginity to?"

My eyes shot open, the breath ripping from my throat, and I found myself sitting up out of Elena's arms faster than I had nestled into them. It seemed that I couldn't escape this, could I? I had slept with Damon, and Kol knew. I didn't know that he knew, but then Klaus and Elijah found out as well.

 _Everyone_ knew now, it seemed, but I was grateful that Damon had finally told her, that he put it all out on the table for her to see.

"Don't worry," Elena laughed, though it was a bit forced. Her eyes were studying me, genuinely, and despite her being a bit uncomfortable, I believed what she was saying. "I was a bit weirded out at first, but then I thought about how I didn't let it bother me that he had slept with Katherine, or even our mom."

My face twisted up tightly, and I seriously just _hoped_ that no one was listening in to all of this. How weird was it to think about? Elena and I had both slept with the same person, the vampire who not only slept with one of our distant ancestors but also our mother.

"You don't have to make it weird."

Even though it _was_ weird to think about, definitely weird, we laughed it off. We reminded ourselves that the lives of vampires weren't the same as a human. Sure, if Damon was a human man who had slept with our mother, it would've been entirely different. Somehow, being a vampire changed everything, right or wrong.

Elena's laughter was the first to fade, but the smile didn't go away, especially the more her eyes studied my face. "You know, in all the time I've spent looking over my life, especially after all the vampires came to town, I never expected this."

"What?"

"For both of us to end up vampires and happy about it," she admitted, but from the way she took a deep breath, I realized that she wasn't quite done. "For you to have kids and be happy about it."

"I _am_ happy," I agreed, but I hadn't actually thought much about that aspect of it all. There had been a time in my life where I had declared that I wouldn't want kids, that I would simply enjoy the kids that Elena and Jeremy brought into the world. I never really believed that I could be a good mother, so I never wanted to risk having them.

Yet the moment I found out that I was pregnant, I dropped everything to save them. I didn't even think about any other options besides bringing them into the world, besides being a mother. It didn't matter that it shouldn't have been possible. It had happened.

"Honestly, I couldn't imagine a way that my life could be better," I continued on, before my thoughts could wander too far. "Obviously not having to fight so hard just to give my kids a chance at a life of their own would be nice, but I wouldn't trade the people in my life for anything."

Elena nodded slowly, but there was something hidden behind her tight lipped smile. "As crazy as it sounds, I agree. You know, not even three months ago, we wanted all the Mikaelsons dead. We wanted them out of our lives so we could find you and bring you back, so you could have your kids without fear of what might happen. Even Kol."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean even Kol?"

She took another deep breath, and the blood in my veins suddenly felt colder somehow. All light had faded from her face, at least for this moment, and she looked away, towards her hands.

"After you left, after Esther died and Rebekah thought she had burned all the white oak from the tree that had been made from the sapling, we made some from the Wickery Bridge sign." She closed her eyes. "We made enough for all of us to have some, to ensure we had one for each Original."

I could feel my throat tightening, but I tried to swallow around it, tried to think past that. "But I told you the truth. Your letter . . . it told you the truth."

"We thought that he had somehow manipulated you the entire time," she whispered. "We couldn't understand how you could've possibly fallen in love with an Original. You were good, and we had seen nothing but bad. It didn't make sense, other than he was lying to you, manipulating you for his own gain. Then he just wouldn't stop looking for you, and we-we wanted to keep you safe from everyone. He was coming out of the Grill one night—"

"Wait," I interrupted, before she could dive further into her story. "You actually tried to kill him?"

Tears fell from her eyes, which remained closed, and she slowly nodded her head. "He was drunk. We couldn't piece together that he actually missed you, despite all his attempts to find you, despite how little he seemed to sleep anymore. Damon and I took advantage of the fact he was drunk, and Damon staked him in the chest. I didn't get it passed his shoulder."

What was it about tears that made the inside of your nose tingle? That made the nerves inside your face sting? I didn't like the feeling, but I couldn't help it. Elena and Damon, despite knowing how I felt about him and despite the promise that Damon made to try and protect him . . . they tried to kill him.

I knew that they refused to see my side of things. I knew they wouldn't have believed much of it when I left town, but I had left with the comfort that they wouldn't do anything simply because I loved him, because Damon promised that he wouldn't.

Yet they did.

Even though the tears fell, I found myself focusing. I found myself closing my eyes and thinking back to that time in my life. It was the most painful and confusing and lonely time of my life, which only made me more aware of everything that Kol was to me. He was my soulmate, and there was no denying that when I was away from him and empty.

I was pregnant. It wasn't supposed to be possible, but I was pregnant. At the time, they didn't know it was Kol's children. They didn't even know I was pregnant with twins. As far as they knew, I was out in the world alone, with child, and they truly believed that he had lied to me, despite all the signs he showed to the contrary.

They almost killed him . . . .

"The only reason I'm saying this is because he's not dead." I cleared my throat. "I understand."

Elena's brow scrunched, and her eyes immediately pulled open, bloodshot where they were usually white. "You _what_?"

"I-I don't like it," I managed to stutter out, doing whatever I could to push past the things trying to bubble out of me. Maybe now wasn't the time to have this dropped on me, but I was glad to hear it said. "I hate it actually. It really hurts because Damon promised me that he would do what he could to protect him." I had to look away from her, towards my hands. "I get why you felt that way, why you believed he was using me and just manipulating me. I was pregnant, and you didn't know it was his kids. You had no way to know that, and if he was trying to find me, why would you want him to do that? It doesn't make it right, but I get it. Our relationship was very scary at the time."

Elena had to swallow, had to choke down a breath to get any real words out. "It's intense, but it always has been."

"Intense, yeah." I was able to look at her now, able to grab onto a conversation that wasn't something I didn't need to think about right now. I needed to focus on the good, focus on the task at hand: killing the Gemini. "Eternal."

Her smile was soft, but it was real, real enough that the tears dried from her eyes. "And you're so sure that's not just your attachment to the father of your children talking?"

"Positive." I adjusted my position to a move comfortable one, and to further brighten the mood, I let a real smile come out, too. "Do you remember what I told you in the letter?"

"I do." She rubbed her dry lips together. "I read it at least a hundred times."

My smile dimmed, only because it grew sheepish. "Sorry about that. In my letter, I said that I believed he was my soulmate, but I wasn't entirely sure. I just knew that I was drawn to him. After leaving, after spending almost two months away from him, I've never been more sure of anything in my life. It's kinda the way Damon is with you. You're dead, but I've never seen you more alive."

A breath passed through her smile, which only brightened to hear me say this out-loud. "I've been chewing on that word for a little bit."

"They can come at the worst time," I informed her, and the timing of Damon's arrival in our life _had_ been horrible. She knew that well enough, just as I did. Kol came into my life in the middle of the chaos his brother was wrecking on our lives, in the middle of what was a war between an Original and a vampire he scorned. "They can change your life for better or worse, and they're endlessly dangerous. They make you live recklessly, but you _live_. At the end of the day, you're a better person, stronger—the best you that you possibly can be."

"I've noticed a difference," she informed me, but her voice was much softer than I expected, as if she believed every word that I was saying. "You're always happy now, even in the middle of all of this. You're more confident in yourself than you've ever been. I remember the time we found out that you were a witch and a werewolf, and I remember you being so afraid of that, of who you were. You're not anymore."

"Kol told me the same thing earlier today, in the airport." The reminder of the things I had done just earlier today, to the young teenager with more power than a single witch should have, had my mood falling south quickly. "Last night, Kol convinced me to try feeding from someone, straight from the vein, and I did. It went well, actually. I pulled away after just a short time because there was so much alcohol in her system that I was afraid she had alcohol poisoning."

"Darcy, that's amazing!" she exclaimed, and the light in her eyes was too painful to stare at right now, faced with the rest of the things that had happened in New Orleans. "Why do you look so upset about that?"

"When we went to the place where Kol already had everything set up, to make the gold dagger, one of their old friends came to try and trap us in there," I said. "Most of it's a pretty long story that we can talk about some other time, but he brought a young witch to help him. She couldn't have been older than Jeremy. I, uh, I forced her to drink my blood and then become a vampire."

"Wait, did you—?"

"I should have," I cut her off, before she could say the words out-loud. "Kol didn't want me to suffer through the pain of killing her, but what's the difference? I made the choice to turn her into a vampire. I might as well have killed her myself."

She had to swallow, to take a deep breath, but she did. She did everything she needed to do to focus her thoughts, and she reached across the couch to grab onto my hand, to give me the best comfort she knew how.

"Why did you do it?" she asked. "What made my sweet twin sister decide that this young witch needed to be a vampire?"

"They trapped us in there, sealed us in to the point that only a witch should've been able to get out," I said. "If I learned anything over my time with Prisca and Shea on the run, it's that witches don't trust siphons, _period_. They consider them to be abominations, _especially_ if they're made into vampires. I'm all of that and _then_ some—I'm an Original vampire. I have a dormant werewolf curse. The less people know about me, the better, and I was already kinda spooked because one of the witches in New Orleans knew about the twins."

Her eyes rounded. "What?"

"Yeah." I leaned forward a bit, propping myself up against my hand. "I don't think this is over."

"It was probably silly to believe that it was."

I didn't want to cry, not anymore, but my vision was blurring before I even realized that I might. "I'm so sorry, Elena. I never wanted this for anyone."

"No, you didn't," she agreed. "But you didn't force us to make this choice. We all did it ourselves. We _chose_ to drop everything else and follow you around the world, to do whatever it took to protect those sweet babies. I did it because you're my sister, and that's my niece and nephew. Damon did it because you're his sister, and that's his niece and nephew—same with Jeremy, Caroline, and Bonnie. We're all Alaric has, and he spent his whole life hunting vampires. He said that it just felt right to become one, to protect the people he loved more than anything."

"Caroline left her mom."

She reached over to tuck some hair behind my ears, ensuring that I saw the way she smiled at me now. "They talk almost every night."

I hadn't thought too much about that, Caroline's burner phone obsession. She called her mom often, from new numbers at least once a week. The calls were untraceable, without being the FBI, but she _did_ find a way to call her mom. With the help of a certain Original hybrid who fancied her, she was able to find ways to ensure no one found out.

Elena pulled me against her again, wrapping her arms so tightly around me that I wondered if she was trying to break me in half. "Everyone is happy, despite everything else. You didn't do any of this."

"You have no idea how glad I am that things, for now, seem to be turning out for the better, for everyone."

She let out a breath into my shoulder, tucking her head in and burying herself into my embrace. "I'm mostly just happy that you didn't let anyone tell you how to live your life. You didn't let my bad decisions change your mind. You didn't let the reactions you knew we would have to Kol stop you from following your heart, for loving the man that most probably wouldn't have. I know that I wouldn't have, but I see why you did now."

I let her go now, to get a full look at her face, and the tears in her eyes had me doing the same. This was seriously getting annoying, but I imagined it wouldn't change anytime soon, just because I was annoyed.

"He was in there all along, just hidden behind centuries of hurt," I informed her. "I saw it the day I pulled the dagger out, when he said that he needed to feed. I used the dagger to poke my hand, and he drank only what he needed. The blood thirsty maniac only took from me what he needed."

"Leave it to you to feed a starving, bloodthirsty Original vampire after a century of desiccation."

With soft goodnights, at least two more hugs, and the promise of more talks like this one, Elena and I went our separate ways, going to the two different bedrooms. I hadn't taken time to figure out which was mine, but it was easy enough to figure out. Kol left the door open, and he was laying on the bed. I didn't imagine he'd lay on anyone else's bed.

Though he was already dressed for bed, wearing nothing but a pair of sleep pants, I didn't move so quickly to do the same. Instead, I ran over to climb onto the bed next to him, ripping him out of his own wandering thoughts in an instant.

The smile that I had only seen directed my way curled across his lips, and the light in his melted eyes made me forget that I was just upset, that I was hurting. It was easy to forget all of that because how could I be hurting with Kol next to me?

"I promise I didn't listen."

"Liar." I leaned down a bit to press my lips against his.

He let out a breath, though his eyes tightened at the corners. "I really didn't listen . . . to most of it. I heard a few bits here and there."

I couldn't peel my eyes away from his face, away from the bliss that I had seen pretty much all day today, even some the night before. It was hard to remember that there was everything bad because the peace looked so natural on him, fit so perfectly with each of his handsome features. Happy was his best look.

"You never told me," I whispered.

His brow scrunched. "What?"

"Elena and Damon tried to kill you."

He sighed and sat himself a bit, if for no other reason than to level our stares. "It didn't matter. Remember that bit about bygones being bygones? I didn't want to upset you."

"Kol—"

"They were looking out for you, Darcy, above all else," he cut me off, and he reached up to place his hand against my cheek. "That's all I want in your life is for you to be surrounded by people who look out for you."

I rolled my eyes, but the reminder that it didn't matter, that no one could hurt me anymore—not without physically going through him—brought a smile across my lips again. "By definition, that just means they have to look out for you, too."

From Kol, I expected arrogance. I expected _something_ cocky to be said about that, but he didn't do that at all. Instead, he adjusted our positions, rolling us around so that he was on top of me, hovering over me in ways that I could never get enough of.

There was nothing sexual about the way he stared down at me. If anything, it was that bliss that warmed every part of him, that burned through him so brightly that it even touched the nerves just beneath my skin.

He was happy. _I_ was happy.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Because I'm happy," he breathed, just moments before his lips fell down to mine.

These were the kind of moments that made it easy to forget that there was even an outside world. Of course we had kids. Of course there were problems we had to face because of that, but in these moments, there was no one but the two of us.

He ripped himself away from me suddenly, and he was more out of breath than he usually was. The kiss hadn't been that long, and it had definitely not been the steamiest kiss we had ever shared.

Still, he was out of breath, but his eyes never moved away from mine. As his lips parted and his breaths attempted to steady, all he could see was the two different colored eyes that I had.

"I promise to love you beyond eternity."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so, someone was asking about Darcy's dad.**

 **No, it hasn't addressed who her father is yet, but there is an entire part 3 where Darcy is exploring more into who she is. To be honest, when I was first jotting down ideas for part 3, it never occurred to me that Darcy's father should be explored at all, but then the more I worked on the outline, the more it all seemed to come together, and it just sort of happened that she does.**

 **I've got to chapter 34 on the outline, I'm pretty sure. Thirty something anyways.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	42. 41: Sneaky

"War is coming.  
War is crying out.  
The world is shaking.  
The sky is falling down.  
Into the darkness, we are one.  
Into the darkness, we all must run.  
Into the darkness, we'll burn a light.  
Into the darkness, we all must fight."

 _Into the Darkness_ : The Phantoms

* * *

The first thing we did in the morning after getting up, after ensuring that the hybrids and the twins would be safe, was leave. Maisyn and Sutton went to the airport, to pick up all the vampires and hybrids who had been in Phoenix, but Ayven and Oryn remained with the twins. With the barrier spell around the door, it would be enough, at least enough to hold anyone who tried to come in back until we were able to get there.

We didn't stray far from the condo, but we didn't have to. Rebekah had found a place not far from a rather high class mall in Atlanta. She probably did that on purpose, though I doubt she imagined I would be there as quickly as I ended up in Atlanta.

The plan to get the twins away wasn't forever, though. Eventually, I would've come for them.

Though Rebekah was eager to shop with me, I spent some time trying to get to know Sage a bit. It was clear that she and Finn had become the sort of outcasts to the family, and I really didn't like that, considering we had worked so hard to make Kol a _part_ of the family. They included Finn in the always and forever pact, but that doesn't mean that they included him as they should.

It didn't matter their differences. It didn't matter if they didn't like Sage. They were still family, family that had protected the twins despite being the outcasts.

So I spent some time getting to know her a bit. Her story was a fairly rough one. The Mikaelsons hated her from the beginning, called her Finn's tawdry lady friend, and they hated that Finn was smitten with her. It seemed to be the first sign any had shown of falling in love with someone, and Klaus had never been okay with that.

Kol had just done it, without asking, and he also ensured Klaus couldn't do anything about it later. I didn't imagine that he would, not anymore. The twins had changed a lot of things in the family, maybe even Klaus' view on love.

That might be a bit of a stretch, but what did I know?

I also learned that Sage was the one to teach Damon how to properly be a vampire. She taught him to feed, taught him to live. If it wasn't for her, he might've spent his century and a half without Katherine completely alone and miserable.

It was good to know at least something about her, to be able to talk to her without the bitter reminder that I knew nothing more about her than her name.

Though we didn't spend long shopping, Rebekah reminded me that we might have to have something nice to wear for whatever was to come with the Gemini. Shea mentioned some sort of meeting, set up to simply talk things through, so whatever kind of meeting the Gemini might want to set up, we had to be ready.

It wasn't like we had packed much of anything from the Phoenix home, and I didn't actually know if we would ever go back to get it all. If everything went according to plan, we could go home. We could go back to the lives we had before, with the addition of the twins.

Maybe it was a long shot. Maybe it was crazy to hope that we could actually do that, but I _did_.

We planned for just about anything—casual dinner, business casual, slightly more than casual, formal, and had Kol not called and told us to meet them somewhere, she was about to insist we get some sort of ball gowns for the occasion.

It might not have been so bad, the whole shopping endeavor, had I not had to face _once again_ the bitter reminder that I had absolutely nothing to my name, that the Mikaelson family had to pay for everything. I didn't make a big scene about it, not like I had the first time, but that didn't mean I felt any less nauseous when I saw the price tags, saw the skyrocketing total of everything at the end of each store.

Meeting up with the guys took little time. They weren't far from where we were, sitting outside at a rather elegant looking café, and they were stretched across two larger tables that had been put together. Most outdoor cafés had round tables, making it impossible to push tables together, but these were longer, rectangle, and they sat six each. With eleven people, it was perfect.

Kol kissed my hand the moment I sat down, and his eyes were shining again, with that same glow that he insisted was nothing more than pure bliss. That alone was a statement, but I couldn't believe there was _nothing_ behind it, no wandering thoughts or anything. Just happy?

I guess I should take it while it was there. There was no telling when life was going to change all of that.

"Seriously, are you ever gonna tell me what's going on?"

I could see his smile fighting the urge to grow, saw him restraining the muscles from doing what they wanted to do naturally, but it remained simple, with only the glow of his eyes telling me that it was something more.

"What have you been up to all morning?"

I rolled my eyes and let the bags fall from my arms. "Nothing." I wanted to mumble being useless and a leech, but with all of his siblings around, I really didn't wanna have this discussion again. I felt stupid enough as it was.

I didn't expect him to lean closer to me, to get his ears next to mine, but I could feel his smile as he did. "Remember what Nik said in New Orleans, princess. You may as well get used to this because it's only the beginning."

It wasn't hard to figure out what he was talking about, the thing that Klaus had said in New Orleans that had him feeling better than I think he ever had. _He_ was a part of always and forever, but more than that, _I_ was, and of course our kids were.

I was family, which by extension meant that the massive and seemingly endless fortune they had amassed over their centuries was something I was able to access.

Looking at it that way, maybe my protests were silly. They had more money than most people would ever see, and that was probably just in one area. Surely they had their fortune scattered about across the world, somewhere safe but also somewhere they could access it if they needed to do so.

I let out a sigh and leaned forward a bit, leaning against the table in a way that most considered improper. "So what have you guys been up to?"

"Mostly just scouting out the town, looking for any signs of anything unusual," Alaric spoke up, and my eyes shifted a couple seats away from me, across the table. His eyes were focused on the area around us, however, so I realized he must still be looking.

One glance at each of the men sitting around the table, and I realized that they were _all_ scouting the area around us. No one was focused, except the man sitting directly to my right, who was watching me.

"Can all vampires spot witches?" I asked. "Am I the only one who can't?"

"No, I'm as lost as you are," Elena assured me, and she reached over to grab a fry from Damon's plate.

Damon looked past Elena, over to stare at me, and he gave me a soft smile. "It's not all vampires. Stefan and I haven't gotten quite that good yet, but we can usually tell when something is out of place."

I noticed Stefan's eyes tightening, noticed him shifting his muscles back ever so slightly so that his posture was straight and stiff. "Like the man approaching right now."

Everyone was suddenly alert, no longer focused on pretending that we were just exploring the scenery of Atlanta. I didn't want to turn, didn't want to make it too obvious, but there wasn't a relaxed muscle inside of my body. It was hard to breathe, hard to remember that it was still necessary.

Suddenly, I began losing focus. I began losing the ability to tune out the heartbeats around me, but maybe it wasn't that I was losing focus. Maybe it was just the single heartbeat behind me, the one person approaching our table deliberately.

"Darcy Gilbert?"

He stopped just behind me, and I could see Kol's eyes darkening. It was his protective instinct coming out, in the face of everything happening, so I made a quick and rash decision, before things could get out of hand.

I stood up from my seat and turned to face him. I could hear Shea's words echoing in my head. _"The Gemini won't do this head on. They're paranoid, sneaky, and if anyone kills the messenger, there is no way to know what will happen."_

"That's me," I said, but the man standing behind me was nothing like who I expected. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was expecting to happen, but he was much older than I thought their messenger might be. He was tall, but for his apparent age, he was fit. "What exactly is it that you want?"

His eyes had been dark the moment they landed on me, but the darkness didn't relent, especially as his lips pressed into a thin line. "You know what we want. You shouldn't exist, and neither should your children."

"Yeah, well, they exist," I said, and I shrugged. "I exist, so let's get past the things that shouldn't be and focus on why you're approaching us."

The corners of his eyes tightened, but he didn't do anything more than hand me an envelope. What it might have inside, I didn't know, but Shea had mentioned the possibility of a meeting, set up at a different time and location. It was the very makings of a trap, but what other choice did we have at this point?

"Our leader has invited the Original family to dinner tonight, to discuss things," he said, and I listened for the sounds of his heart to flutter. I checked for any facial tells, but I heard and saw none. This man was either a damn good liar or sincere, at least as far as he knew. "He doesn't want anyone to get hurt."

I scoffed. "Then he needs to stay the hell away from my kids. Might I emphasize that word? _Kids_. Infants. You know, not even three months old?"

I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me, and I had to take a deep breath. Closing my eyes to do so was the only way to clear out the rage that had started building before I even realized it.

 _If you kill this man . . . every plan we could possibly make would crash and burn._

"Peaceful negotiations, I presume?" Elijah asked.

The man looked away from me, towards the large tables full of vampires—five Originals, one that was a hybrid, and others that were over a century old. Then there was me, but you know, I was still new and very much out of control. I didn't know how much good I could actually do, not without doing something that I couldn't undo.

Like what I had done to Davina?

"Yes," he said, with a startling emptiness in his voice. There was fake pleasantry, but it was obviously fake, strained by the weight of fear that he desperately tried to hide. I could hear it in his accelerated heartbeat, saw it in the way his eyes moved between each of us, particularly the Originals.

With one final goodbye, the man left, and I remained standing until he was far out of sight. I did a scan of the area, but it didn't matter. With him no longer in sight, the rest of the people at the tables began standing up, and Elijah barely took the time to toss some money onto the table.

I guess it made sense to leave. Everything we had gotten out of the condo for had happened. We had a place to meet up, and now, the best thing we could do was get back to the twins, to formulate a real, solid plan.

The people who had waited in Phoenix were arriving at the condo around the same time we were. There wasn't time to stop and enjoy one another's company, not with everything suddenly becoming urgent. It was now or never.

We didn't go into the open living room. There was one master bedroom, and it was big enough for everyone to stand comfortably, yet small enough that it could be contained, the things we said anyways.

How was I going to do that? Shea gave me a small bundle of herbs, sage, and she told me all about the privacy spell she learned from Esther's grimoire. I had asked her about it once, if she knew anything, but she remembered.

I now had a privacy spell.

"Okay, so we've already pretty firmly established that the Gemini will die tonight," Rebekah said, but her eyes were focused on Shea and Prisca. With the comfort of their loves around them, they were better able to process this, to handle what we had all come to terms with. "Whoever has to kill the leader to do that will, with the exception of Darcy because the last thing we need is our witch who plans to do this spell to suddenly turn into a werewolf."

Shea took a slow breath, but she nodded. "We need to establish who will remain here with the twins and who will go to this dinner."

She had her phone in her hand, and she focused back on it, scrolling through whatever she was looking at. She handed her phone over to me when she found it, and what I saw was a picture of the very man who had handed us the invitation.

"That's the leader," she informed me. "Our uncle, Joshua Parker."

I took the phone from her hands and handed it to Kol, not entirely sure what to make of this. Kol, however, was a lot better prepared for these dangerous and surprising situations, so he didn't freeze up.

He didn't hesitate to ask what needed to be asked. "Why did he approach us today?"

Shea wasn't the only one who was confused by what Kol said. Prisca stood from the edge of the bed, with her arms tightly folded over her chest, and her face scrunched. "What?"

"He was the man who told us of this dinner, who gave Darcy the invitation," Kol said.

"I-I don't know why he would do that," Shea admitted, but her eyes focused on the phone that was now back in her hands. "That was a risk that he wouldn't normally take, unless he wanted you to believe him to be a messenger, not the leader. I really . . . I have no idea why he did that, but we can't let it distract us."

"The place he wants us to meet is just outside of the city, a rather rural farm area from what we've gathered from pictures of the property," Klaus said, and for once, when he looked at Prisca and Shea, he didn't stare at them like enemies. They were now a part of this, people helping reach a common goal.

"I think it would be best if only the Original family went," Shea said, but she pointed over at me. "Aside from obviously you. If anyone besides an Original vampire goes, it's too much risk. The Gemini could easily kill someone, especially in retaliation once they realize that they're going to die."

"I think it would be best if I remained behind," Finn spoke up, which surprised a lot of people—myself included. "If Niklaus is the only one of our family to not show up, they might find that a bit suspicious."

"That's . . . that's actually a really good point," she agreed, and she took a deep breath.

Ayven cleared her throat and pushed herself off the wall, to bring more attention to her for at least the moment. "A kind of off point note? Anyone who isn't an Original or a hybrid is better off staying inside, no matter what. There's a relatively small pack in Atlanta, but they don't care who they kill. They don't contain themselves."

I could feel my brow scrunching. "What do you mean?"

"We kept up with the full moon for years, Darcy," Maisyn said, and it was suddenly a reminder that most people here had to deal with the full moon at some point in their lives. I actually remembered it, the night that Maisyn, Ayven, Oryn, and Sutton had to go elsewhere, close to the end of the pregnancy. They had to go because they couldn't safely turn, especially around me.

They had been werewolves before all of this, so of course they knew that tonight was a full moon.

"Yeah, I've had a werewolf bite, and I can assure you that I will remain safely inside these doors," Damon said.

"It wouldn't be such a big deal if there wasn't so much going on tonight," Prisca said. "We have two sources of a cure and all."

"You think Darcy's blood will cure it?" Klaus asked.

"Well, she'd have to trigger her curse first, but I'm almost positive," Prisca informed him, but her gaze didn't move over to him, instead focused on me. "Still, there's a bit more to it than that."

"We're getting off point," Shea said, before anyone could ask her what the hell she was talking about. What could I do without triggering my curse? How could I cure a werewolf bite? "The rest of us will stay here, but we can't make it too suspicious. If this is what I think that it is, it's a smoke screen. The ones who are the strongest are supposed to be elsewhere, clearly far enough away."

"What do you think they plan to do?" I asked.

"There are a lot of things they could do," Shea said, but she took a deep breath. "This sort of points to death, however, because killing the twins won't be that simple. They can't just kill them. They have to kill them, wait for them to wake up in transition, and let them die that way."

It was horrifying to think about, the twins dying and waking up as vampires at two months old. What kind of vampires could they be? What kind of life could that be, stuck at two months forever?

Under no circumstances was that going to happen. It _couldn't_.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, y'all, here it is. I wasn't gonna say anything because I really hate spoiling things, but I've had so many people ask me about him that I don't have much choice but to address it.**

 **Yes, Kai will be in this story, but _no_. He isn't Darcy's father. That's an interesting idea, but with Darcy's werewolf gene, he sort of can't be without changing a lot of stuff. He doesn't come in during part 2, but part 3. Later chapters, not at first. You'll just see when the time comes. :)**

 **Seriously, y'all, there is so much planned for part 3. I hope things aren't getting too complicated. I'm not meaning for them to be.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	43. 42: Lucky

"So my love, keep on running.  
You gotta get through today.  
There my love, keep on running.  
Gotta keep those tears at bay.  
Oh my love, don't stop burning.  
Gotta send them up in flames."

 _Flames_ : David Guetta feat. Sia

* * *

I stared at the three vials of blood in my hand, rolling them between my fingers absentmindedly while my mind went over the steps of the plan, the parts of the _spell_ that I would have to memorize. I had to wait until just before the Gemini died, to ensure nothing went wrong between the time we left and the time for them to die. The spell could only be done once, and if done prematurely, things just might not work right.

Shea explained it, but to be honest, all I kept thinking about was how this was all depending on me. If _I_ screwed up . . . my kids were going to die.

I was in tears, asking Shea and Prisca how it was even possible to do the spell from so many miles away, but they both assured me that I could do it. Prisca said that most witches probably wouldn't be able to do it from the distance away, as the spell was meant for the witch to be next to the lives they were binding, but she promised that I _could_. She knew more about this than I could ever hope to, so I believed her.

To do it from so far away, it would require me to consume the blood of Klaus and the twins. It was why I had the vials, marked with either a K or a T. As long as I drank Klaus' blood first, it didn't matter which order I drank the twins' blood.

I could do this. I had to do this. Everything I had done to get me to this point led up to me being able to do this.

I carefully placed the vials on the bathroom counter and shifted away, moving towards the bags that lay scattered at my feet. Rebekah had insisted I had something to wear inside of them, but I wasn't so sure. How many times had I searched through and come up empty?

Everything I found was either too plain or too much, and that was stressful. On top of everything else, I had to worry about what the hell I was gonna wear.

I didn't mean to throw the bags out of the bathroom, across the room until they hit against the bed, but I didn't care when I did. The clothes inside fell out, and it definitely got Kol's attention.

Of course he could look good. He made everything look good, natural, and it didn't help that the grey suit he wore fit him so perfectly. He didn't have to wear a tie to be appropriately dressed for the evening, but the more I stared at him, the more I wanted to run my fingers through the buttons on the baby blue button-down he wore and just forget the world.

Obviously that couldn't happen, but the thought was there. It was clearly not fair.

He didn't say anything when he stepped into the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against the doorframe so casually while he adjusted the ends of his sleeves, of both the jacket and the shirt beneath. His eyebrows pulled up, but he didn't have to say anything.

I let out a huff and struggled to remind myself that I had already done my hair and makeup, that I couldn't rub my hands across my face without ruining the hard work I had put into my face. Smoky eyes with the perfect wing, red velvet lipstick only perfectly brought out the appeal of the smoky eyes.

"Is it crazy that I'm worried about what to wear?"

I loved the smile that twisted across his lips, that loosened his posture entirely, and he pushed himself off the doorframe effortlessly. "A bit, but you're you, love. I'd expect nothing less." He placed a hand carefully across my face, and his eyes focused on my lips. There was a fire trying to fight its way out, but he was smothering it well, at least for now. "I don't want to ruin that."

"This stuff doesn't come off that easily," I assured him. "I bought that other stuff just to—"

He cut me off with his lips against mine. They moved with experience, but they were soft, kissing me with all of the love he had to show instead of the passion—well _some_ of the love, because I didn't think we had time for all of the love.

"These people will be dead soon," he reminded me, after ripping himself away and taking my breath with him. "It doesn't matter what you wear, princess, as long as you wear _something_."

I didn't mean to smirk, but it only made the flames burst against the walls he had put up around himself for the purpose of everything going as it should. "They'll be dead soon anyways. Why does it matter?"

An exasperated sigh passed through his lips, just moments before one arm snaked around my waist, ripping my body against his. He didn't just hold me there, but instead began kissing along my neck. Since I was wearing nothing but a silk robe, I imagined he was probably struggling, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed it when he struggled to contain himself around me.

"My brother won't," he reminded me, and his tongue flicked across the skin of my neck, just above the dimple of my collar bone. "Every piece of you is mine to enjoy, and mine alone."

My fingers intertwined in his hair without thought, but he didn't mind feeling my nails scrape against his scalp. "You can see whatever piece of me you want, except whatever you would've seen had you been there when I had the twins because I'm pretty sure I could never do that again."

"Mmm. We could test that theory out, just to make sure you're right." Just as he pulled me closer to him, as his grip tightened on me, he pulled his face away from my neck, flashing me that perfect smile that no one but Kol Mikaelson could wear. "We have to make it through this dinner first, unfortunately."

I didn't like pouting, but damn it, he did that. He made me do it. Who even does that? He had _no_ intentions of doing anything but riling me up more, as if I needed more reason to change the plans and insist I couldn't do this.

I had to do it. It wasn't really an option.

"What about this?"

I hadn't even realized he had left the bathroom and gone over to the scattered bags until I heard him speak up, and stepping into the bedroom, the dress in his hands had my face flushing.

I didn't want to buy it, but Rebekah didn't really give me an option. Once I tried it on, I was determined that it was too much, and I wouldn't even come out of the dressing room to show it off. Rebekah must have sensed the truth behind my reasoning to not buy it, so she did.

It was just . . . it was better suited for someone else, no matter how confident I was in myself. It was gorgeous, a beautiful green bodycon hidden beneath black lace that covered a bit more than the dress itself. With sleeves that went just past my elbows, there was a v neck that almost showed cleavage—would have if it wasn't for the green dress beneath the lace.

The dress itself fit perfectly, but that was the problem.

"I . . . I don't know," I mumbled, and I tried to fight the heat that flushed across my cheeks. I could feel that I wasn't doing a very good job of it, but I _tried_. "I figured it was a bit much."

"It's not, Darcy." He laid it across the bed and turned to me, to allow me to see the smile that began forming back across his lips. "Please wear this."

I let out a huff, but it was exaggerated. He knew it, too, part of my pouting and discomfort with it all. Eventually, I'd get over it, maybe a few decades down the road, but right now, wearing things that weren't of vintage design or floral patterns was still very new.

The Darcy Gilbert I used to be always dressed up. I wore dresses more than I wore pants, and I loved that. That part still remained, but the dresses were changing, changing with me, and eventually, I would accept it and adjust to it. It would stop feeling foreign.

Tonight wasn't that time, but I decided to go for it, to listen to his advice. He was Kol, so he obviously knew what would look good and what was appropriate for this situation.

"Fine, but only because you asked nicely, and you look so damn good yourself," I all but moaned.

The sound of his laughter could diffuse any tense situation, especially as light-hearted as it was. There was no force behind it, nothing dark and sinister. It was just love and joy, and that was beautiful, the most beautiful sound in the world.

"Of course I do," he said, and the laughter was cut short by a devious glow in his eyes, that arrogant smirk that was far too appealing for what it was. "I'll be the most handsome one there."

"Was that ever in doubt?"

He grabbed onto my waist against, pulling my body closer to his, and his teeth sank into his bottom lip. "Oh, I do love you."

I was smiling into the kiss he gave me, but it was over far too quickly. One simple kiss to seal in what he had said, to seal in everything that needed to be left behind, was all that he gave me.

For once, I was okay with that.

"I'll be downstairs," he murmured, and he rubbed his fingers across my cheek. "I would like to say goodbye to the twins before we leave."

I hadn't even thought about that, but the reminder that I _did_ need to do that, and not cause us all to be late somehow, had me quickly moving to find the rest of what I might wear. Black stiletto boots, black opaque tights, and some diamond earrings? Perfect.

I waited to slip out of the robe until Kol was gone, simply because I didn't want him changing him mind. I had to search through the bags for a strapless bra, but I found one, with a pair of lace panties to match. Getting dressed had become much easier than it used to be, but I didn't even make it into my boots before my thoughts grabbed ahold of me.

This was it, the time to just do what I had to do. It was kind of now or never. Everything was at stake—my children, my friends, my _sanity_ . . . .

It was going to be hard, maybe one of the hardest things I had done to date. I would have to focus on doing the spell properly, and I would have to focus so much on that . . . would I be able to contain the darker parts of me? The dormant werewolf? The new vampire still learning to control the bloodlust?

The vampire thirsted for blood, but the werewolf thirsted for _death_. It was easy enough to contain when all I had to think about was not killing someone, but I had to focus on doing this spell. Would I be able to contain the urge to kill someone?

I had to, for both myself and for my kids. I had to do the spell, and if I killed someone—anyone—it would trigger my werewolf curse. I couldn't even begin to do the spell in the middle of all of that.

It didn't matter if I believed that I could. There were no other options.

Eventually, I used that to get me up, to get myself into the boots I planned to wear, and despite being uncomfortable, I knew I couldn't hide out in here forever. There wouldn't be long before we had to leave, and I needed to say goodbye to the twins as well.

I didn't think much about coming down the stairs, not until just about every eye in the room turned towards me at once. It was horrifying, and I immediately regretted my decision to wear what I did.

How had I let Kol talk me into this? Seriously? Horrible decision.

At the sight of Theia and Alastor in his arms, however, I was able to ignore their wide-eyed stares, ignore the way each of their gazes followed me across the living room. Instead, I walked over to take Theia from Kol's arms, who for once was happy to have me take her.

She was a jealous little thing, didn't like _her_ daddy holding her and Alastor at the same time.

"Who are you and what have you done with Darcy?"

Caroline's random, out of the blue question had the power to rip me away from my daughter, enough that I stared across the room, towards her, and my eyes rounded. "What? Does this look bad?"

"No!" she exclaimed, and she let out a breath. "Darcy, you look . . . stunning."

I tried not to let what she was saying get to me, but she just asked where Darcy was, and then told me that I looked stunning. Did that mean the old Darcy didn't? I never believed so, but Caroline had insisted that I was beautiful, too.

"Thanks?"

She covered her face with her hands for a few seconds and groaned. "Oh, that came out so wrong. It's just . . . you just . . . I can't say what I'm trying to say."

"I get it. You know, I think Darcy died or something." I looked over at Kol, whose lips were pressed in a restrained smirk, the smirk that I saw vibrantly in his warm eyes. "Did you do that?"

"No, actually," he said, playing along with me perfectly. "I didn't kill her. I didn't stop the person who did, though."

"Rude."

"She's right," Rebekah said, and when I tore myself away from Kol, to look towards the woman who was also my sister, I found a massive smile brightening her already beautiful face. "You look like a Mikaelson."

"I understand exactly what you're saying." Though I got it, I found myself frowning. "Does that mean that only Mikaelsons can dress well?"

She let out a breathless laugh, and it looked like there might've been tears in her eyes. It was hard to say if there were tears, or if it was just the reflection of the chandelier hanging near her. "Yes, if that's where your crazy but wonderful mind would like to take that, sure."

I glanced down at Theia, who had her hands pressed against my chest, and I gave her a small smile. "I should go change then."

"Oh come on now, Darcy," Elijah said, bringing himself into the conversation in a surprising way. "You remember what we discussed at the airport."

I found myself grinning, just to fight back a laugh. "Right. I'm the adopted sister no one wanted." Though I had barely taken into account where he was, I knew where Klaus stood, and I pointed in his direction. "Especially him. He really didn't want me."

"You know what? You should stop," Kol informed me.

I didn't tear my gaze from the little girl in my arms, despite the heat pooling beneath my cheeks. "Please be normal. Don't be like me."

"Be exactly like your mother, actually."

Hearing Kol's words, softer than velvet, ripped me away from Theia in a moment. His eyes were soft, focused on nothing but me, and there was that glow again, the one with a hidden story that he had yet to tell me. One of these days, I was going to get what I wanted from him, all the information that I needed, but there wasn't time to discuss it, to demand answers.

For now, all I could do was take comfort in the fact that Kol was happy. Seeing his daughter in my arms, while he held onto his son, made it inescapable.

Though his eyes didn't leave me, I found mine drifting, towards the people who had gathered inside of the living room. Shea and Prisca said that too many in the living room would be suspicious, but that was later, after we had already left.

Right now, _everyone_ stood here, watching. Even the hybrids, sired to the twins, were in the room, and they were watching on with brightness in their eyes that had been missing from everyone's lives.

After getting back home, I hadn't gotten the chance to spend as much time with them all as I had on the road, but that didn't make them any less important to me. Oryn and Ayven had given up their lives to sire themselves to the twins, to protect them. Sure, they wanted to stop turning, but they knew what becoming hybrids sired to the twins would mean. They didn't let that stop them.

Sutton was willing to follow Shea to the ends of the world, as Maisyn was Prisca. They loved them both so endlessly that it was only fitting that they dedicate themselves to protecting me and my twins the way that Shea and Prisca had, without anyone forcing their hand. They had become friends, though Maisyn and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. I still cared about her well-being.

Then there was everyone I already knew, the people from Mystic Falls. There were my siblings, the Salvatores, Caroline, Bonnie, Alaric . . . they had all given up their lives, their humanity, without force. Klaus had forced Stefan to come along at one point, but he had been granted freedom. Before we even made it to Phoenix, he had been given a chance to leave, to go back to Mystic Falls, but he didn't want to. He had nothing better to do with his life than protect the adorable twins that everyone wanted dead, no matter how horrible that might be.

The Mikaelsons had once been enemies. It started with Elijah, though we had heard of Klaus first. After those two, after Stefan left town with Klaus, Rebekah came along when they came back to town. There was a lot of drama and turmoil, but it eventually led to the moment where I took the dagger from the three Originals who lay in boxes.

Now, I had a family larger than I could've ever hoped for, a family that was going through everything to protect one another. It was a family that would travel everywhere, do anything, if it meant everyone in it was safe.

All things considered, I was actually extremely lucky.

"While this moment is touching, and definitely not what I had hoped to be my last moments before being daggered for an unknown amount of time, there is one thing you are forgetting, brother."

Elena seemed to understand what Klaus was saying, and she crossed the room to take Alastor from Kol's arms. Damon did the same, taking Theia from me, so I knew that this was it. It was time to make our stand against the Gemini, for the twins.

Kol turned towards his brother, and I saw it in his hands, the gold dagger. The ends of it were sprinkled with what looked like dust, but it had to have been white oak ash.

"We don't know what might happen if a hybrid daggers me, so for safety's sake, I believe it should be one of you."

From the way he handed Kol the gold dagger, it was said without being said that he didn't just think it should be one of his siblings. If it was anyone, Kol and Finn deserved the chance. Finn had only been daggered once, left rotting in a box for nine centuries, but Kol had lived the pain over and over again.

Either deserved the chance, but it was given to Kol. The gold dagger was his dream, after all.

There was so much conflict in Kol's normally warm eyes, things that I never would've guessed would be there in the face of daggering his brother, with the gold dagger he, himself, made.

Klaus noticed this, and it made him smile, a soft smile that didn't have any of his usual darkness or arrogance lingering. "I'm sure you've been waiting centuries for this."

"I have." Kol let out a breath that was supposed to sound like a laugh, but it wasn't, not even close. "I suppose now we're even."

"Oh, come now." Klaus grinned at his brother, doing his best to lighten the tense moment, the mood that had quickly fallen south. "I've daggered you more than once, haven't I?"

"Ah, Nik." Kol had to breathe in through his nose, had to take a sharp breath so he might have a chance to get words out. "Let's let bygones be bygones."

As the two stared at one another, I had never seen them both fill with tears, not in the same moment. I couldn't remember a time I had actually seen Klaus get close to crying at all, but I was seeing it then, as he and Kol exchanged this powerful look of understanding, of brotherhood—of _love_.

I wasn't entirely sure why pinching the bridge of my nose kept the tears from filling my eyes, but somehow, it did. Maybe it was the pressure applied elsewhere. I didn't really know, but it was the only way I could keep myself from crying, from letting the moment potentially ruin the makeup I had worked hard on.

If there was any moment worth ruining makeup for, this was it.

Rebekah didn't just stand across the room crying, unable to help it. She had centuries of feelings behind this, so of course she couldn't contain her tears. Elijah couldn't either, and even Finn seemed a bit watery eyed. It was powerful, beautiful, and I knew it would help carry them through the time without him, however long that might be.

She came across the room and threw her arms around her brother, holding him against her until he had no choice but to hug her back. I didn't know if he had planned for this kind of goodbye, for any kind of goodbye, but he was definitely gonna get it, from all of us.

"Every available day, I will be by your side showing you everything they do." She pulled away to look at him, to give him a large smile. "When they start walking, you will see it for yourself."

"Yes, Niklaus," Elijah murmured, and he joined his sister next to their brother, only so he could hug him for himself. "You won't miss a moment."

It wouldn't be the same. Everyone knew that, but it was _something_ , something he had already come to terms with giving up. He had willingly given his life so that the twins could live theirs, even though it meant he wouldn't be there to see it.

Even Finn came over to hug him, telling him to sleep well. It wasn't meant to be harsh, as they both laughed about it the moment he said it. It did well to lighten the mood, to stop some of the tears that were forming around the room.

I still held onto my nose, desperately trying to do anything but cry.

Elena and Damon offered Theia and Alastor to him, giving him one last chance to hold them before they were too big to be held. It was his final goodbye to the two that he was doing all of this for.

It was so bittersweet, especially when Alastor reached for him as Elena took him back away. They had grown fond of the people around them, even their Uncle Nik, and Alastor didn't want to let him go.

That had tears actually falling down his face, but he sent Elena away, insisting that there wasn't time for anything more.

Klaus was the one to pull Kol into a hug, and even with the dagger in his hands, Kol held onto his brother.

"Don't you dare be a love struck fool," he warned, though there was a smile on his lips. "I won't be here to clean up the mess."

Kol laughed, despite his pain at this moment that he had once thought would be the greatest moment of his life. "Oh, I'm sure I will."

I didn't expect Klaus to pull away, to look over at me, but he did. There was intent in his stare, in his kind smile, and I found the tears falling anyways, despite my desperate attempts to keep them away. "And the doppelgänger who looked funny."

I rubbed my lips together and nodded. "That's me."

"Thank you."

I didn't know what he was thanking me for, what he might have to thank me for. All I had done was ensure the twins came into the world, and if that was it, it wasn't for him. Yet I would gladly do it all over again.

I didn't let my surprise and confusion ruin the moment, instead gave him the best smirk I could. "I promise to stay just as horrible at surviving an eternity as I am now."

His smile widened, and his already soft eyes softened even further, however that was even possible. "You might actually make it through this after all."

My arms were around him before I thought about it, before it occurred to me that I had never hugged Klaus at all. Most times, our conversations were tense, or bickering back and forth.

This was different. He was giving up the chance to watch the twins grow up to ensure that they did. How easy would it have been to just let Elijah do it? All he had to have done was remain quiet, to agree that Elijah was the best candidate for it.

He didn't. Instead, he offered himself, to start trying for his redemption, especially in his family's eyes. It worked, too.

My grip on him was tight, and I was surprised to find his tight around me as well. "You have no idea how much this means to me, and I swear I won't waste what you're doing."

"I know you won't," he said. "I know that you won't let anything happen to our family, any of them."

He was right about that. His family was my family, by his own declaration but also by mine. We were family, through a crazy and twisted turn of events, and nothing was going to happen to any of us, not unless they physically went through me.

I barely let him go before I found myself being moved out of the way, though Caroline didn't actually mean to bump me out of the way. She wasn't even paying attention to me, really, as her eyes and her _heart_ were focused on someone else.

To see her lips press into his, to see her wrap her arms around him and bring him close to her . . . it shocked a lot of people around the room, and some were pretty uncomfortable to see it—but I wasn't. If anything, I understood completely.

Kol had done so many horrible things over his lifetime, things I would never understand or maybe even know, and surely Klaus had as well. It didn't matter, however, because through the bad, there was that good beneath that was so easy to fall in love with, the men that they were before they became vampires.

That was who Caroline was holding, who Caroline was kissing, and dare I say it, who Caroline had fallen in love with.

It wasn't overly romantic or passionate, but it meant more to them than what anyone else could see.

The love that I saw burning in Klaus' eyes when Caroline pulled away, when I got the briefest glimpse of the happiness that he would forever try to deny, made my heart melt. He was so afraid of love, called it weakness that their family couldn't afford to have, but damn it, I had been determined to prove him wrong—and I had, along with his own love forming for one of my best friends.

"Now there's that last moment I was hoping for."

* * *

 **A/N: Y'all! Klaroline feels.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**


	44. 43: Peace Treaty

"This is why we bleed. This is why we scream,  
But we won't run away.  
This is why we know that we must go  
So we can fight today.  
You can make me bleed. You can make me scream,  
But I won't run away."

 _This is Why We Bleed_ : Leader

* * *

As Elijah shifted the car into park, as the moment we had all been anxiously waiting for finally arrived, I took the last chance I had to drink all three vials. First Klaus's blood, and then the vial of blood from each twin.

It was here. It was time. The blood was going to remain in my system for the entirety of the night, so I didn't have to worry about somehow losing the connection, no matter how long this went on.

Maybe it would be quick. Maybe we wouldn't even make it to dinner.

"Everything is going to be fine. Just smile and relax."

Elijah's words didn't help much as Kol helped me out of the SUV, as the four of us took the steps towards the massive porch of the home we were at. It reminded me a lot of the Lockwood mansion from the outside, with towering ceilings above the porch and large windows adorning the sides. I didn't know whose home it actually was, since the Gemini lived in Portland.

Elijah was the one to ring the doorbell, and at the sight of an elderly woman, somewhere in her sixties and seventies, opening it, I wondered if maybe it was her home. She was dressed elegantly enough, though it was a casual look that one might wear if turning in for the night.

Her smile was warm, even if her eyes were empty, vacant even, and she gestured us inside. "Please, come in."

When Elijah stepped through the threshold, I knew that it had to be her home. Someone living owned the place, so only the person who owned it could invite the undead inside.

It was the first time I had ever had to be invited in anywhere. Since turning, the only places I had gone were homes owned by vampires, or the condo which was in one of the vampires' names. I doubted it was Rebekah's, since they knew to look for the name Mikaelson.

 _Stop it, Darcy. Focus_.

That was gonna be difficult enough as it was. I didn't need to take in anything more than what I was supposed to. All I needed to focus on was appearing like I was just here to hear them out, as if there wasn't another plan working behind their backs.

We barely made it into the large entrance room before none other than Joshua Parker himself came into the room, with a few well-dressed people on his side. He, too, was dressed for the occasion, the same business casual that we all wore. I wasn't entirely sure mine fit under the category business casual, but Elijah wore a suit and tie as always. I didn't feel _completely_ out of place.

His smile was warmer than it had been earlier, and it extended towards all of us, even me. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be surprised to see him, but I just appeared indifferent, which was pretty easy to do when that was exactly how I felt.

"I see that you have all met Mrs. Greene." He gestured towards the woman behind us, who still stood with a kind smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Greene. That will be all."

The elderly woman gave us another courteous smile and simply left the home. I didn't know where she was going, but it was probably best that she was anywhere else but here. Was she a friend of the coven? Was she a distant part of the coven? I didn't know, but I had to remind myself that none of that mattered.

"You have impeccable timing," he informed us, though his eyes seemed to linger on me the longest. "Dinner is almost ready. Please, come join us in the dining room."

I didn't want to say anything, didn't want to be here at all, but here was where I had to be. If the mother of the twins didn't show up, it would be a bit suspicious, and there was no way it could work.

I would also have to remind myself to keep my mouth shut, that this was a "peace" talk, nothing more.

Nothing more.

Elijah extended the same smile to Joshua that he had given us from the moment he came into the room, even as we followed behind him. I wondered if I was supposed to do the same because on glance towards Rebekah, I noticed a similar smile pressed onto her lips, though it was far less pleasant. Kol, however, looked vacant, and that was exactly what I decided to do.

These were our kids we were talking about, after all. We had every right to be angry.

The dining room was filled with a table much larger than most, but it reminded me of the dining room back in the home in Phoenix. There were so many of us, and we had only sat down to eat at it one time, but we had a dinner with everyone.

This wasn't quite as large, as there were only a few members of the Gemini within sight. I didn't know if any were cloaked, but Shea mentioned that they probably wouldn't waste their people on us because we couldn't die. The twins, however, could, so if they had any extra people with them, they would probably be going to the condo, for whatever they were secretly planning under the canopy of this peace talk.

As we all sat around the table, with Kol and Elijah acting as perfect gentlemen and pulling Rebekah and my chair out, Elijah's smile only grew back. He was focused on Joshua, focused on the man in charge.

"Though we briefly encountered one another earlier, I do not believe we have been properly introduced," Elijah said, and he cleared his throat. "I am Elijah Mikaelson. This is my sister Rebekah, my brother Kol, and Darcy."

Joshua's smile didn't fade or grow, but he leaned back into the chair he sat in, making himself quite comfortable. "It is good to finally meet all of you. I'm sure you know that we have heard many stories about you, though I was hoping to meet all of you."

"If you've heard stories of our brother, Niklaus, you would have heard that he has a bit of a temper," Rebekah said, and she let out a breath of a laugh. "We came to talk peacefully, so you understand why Niklaus was not permitted to attend."

"I do appreciate that." He smiled at her and reached across the table, to grab the bottle of wine from a container close by, filled with ice. It had been opened prior to being chilled, so he simply had to remove the cork again and pour it into his glass. "Why don't we eat first?"

I didn't want to eat first, frankly. I was ready for this to be over, but I had to do it. The only thing that got me through the mindless conversation, mostly between Elijah and Joshua, was Kol's hand on my knee, his hesitance to say anything either. We had both been warned about talking if we didn't have anything nice to say, but how long could that last? Peace talks weren't to get to know one another. They were meant to speak of terms, conditions in which the war would cease. What conditions would we be even remotely willing to listen to?

As dinner became dessert, as dessert became nothing more than wine, things took a turn, the turn I was ready for and scared for.

"I have heard some things about these prison worlds you have, and I won't deny that I am most curious about them," Elijah informed him, and he pressed his shoulders back into his chair.

Joshua's lips pressed into a tight smile. "The things that you know of the Gemini are things that only Gemini should know, but I assumed you would have heard some things when two of our own members of the coven decided to leave." His gaze shifted to me, and he let it empty of the forced pleasantries. "How are Shea and Prisca doing? They're my nieces, after all. My brother is concerned for them."

"They're fine," I said, but I had to clear my throat when I got it out. It was the first time I had actually talked all evening, and that was terrifying. "They're happy."

Joshua smiled, but his eyes fell, towards his glass of wine. "It is almost ironic that you mention prison worlds."

I could feel the blood in my veins freezing in an instant. "I'm sorry, but I'm kind of missing the irony of it."

He looked up at me now, and he rubbed his lips together. "You know that we do not think your children should exist."

"Yes, and we have been over the fact that they do, and that kinda can't just be taken back." I bit down on my bottom lip, the only kind of restraint I had to force myself to stop there.

"Have you heard about how we found out about your children to begin with?"

"We were told that our mother asked you to take care of them if she failed to do so," Kol said, and his grip on my knee tightened, maybe his own form of restraint. "That doesn't explain why you are willing to do this. Doesn't your coven come before all else?"

"If your children exist in this world, there is a threat to the entire world, a threat that directly affects our coven," he said, and the corners of his eyes tightened. "You may not believe this, and that's okay, but we take no joy in what we're trying to do. Though we have never met, Darcy, you are, by blood, a member of the Gemini coven. Your siphon nature proves that alone, and your children are as well. Even when someone chooses to leave the coven, we don't act against them. They're free to leave, but they will always be a member of the Gemini. That is extended to you and your children, and I'm sorry that we have to do this against some of our own."

"What exactly is your goal?" I asked. "We're here to talk, so let's just get past all the pretending and tell me what it is you want to do with my children."

He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders, stiffening his posture to appear more dominant maybe. "It's not what we want to do with your children. It's what we already have."

"What?"

He held a hand towards me, obviously seeing the way my muscles tensed, the way my body readied itself for anything. "Before you think of acting against us, we have sent some of our most powerful witches to your condo, and they have what is known as an Ascendant."

"You can't send them to a prison world!" I exclaimed, and I found myself on my feet, knocking the chair that I sat in back. "They're babies!"

"I know, and we don't make this decision lightly," he said again, but it wasn't doing anything to calm the rage inside of me, the rage fueling through my veins and boiling in the center of my stomach. I had never felt so ready to hurt someone, but I was ready—yet I couldn't do that. "This doesn't end with the twins. One day, we will come for you, too, and you will go to a prison world of your own—or you can choose to go with your children now."

I shook my head. "No. _No_! You can't do this! They're _babies_! What happens to them if they're-if they're over there all alone?"

"In a prison world created for them, they cannot die," he informed me, which was actually news to me. "You can be with them, for as long as you would've lived on this side of the world, or you can try to fight this. You can look for a way to get them out and end up separated anyways."

"You expect me to submit to my children being sent over there?" I asked. "What kind of person would do that?!"

Any hint of pleasantries that had existed were gone, and a darkness clouded his eyes, the darkness I expected to see from the moment we stepped inside. That clearly hadn't happened because he was overjoyed. We were walking right into his trap, and none of us saw that coming.

Or did we? Did Shea and Prisca know? Were they somehow able to stop them?

Now wasn't the time to text, but _fuck_ , I had to know somehow. I had to know that everything was okay, that my kids weren't already trapped in a prison world all alone.

"I did," he said, after a tense moment of silence passed between us. "When I watched my son murder my children, attempt to murder all of my children, I did what I had to do for the sake of the coven, for the safety of my family. He was born unfit to lead the coven, and he didn't like that."

I remembered, briefly, Shea and Prisca mentioning the siphon son that their uncle had, the one who had been sent to his own prison world after murdering four of his siblings.

"Born unfit?" I scoffed. "Right, because he was a siphon? See, the thing you don't get is that siphons aren't born monsters."

"We will get them back," Kol spoke up, before I could continue down the pointless road that I had traveled. It didn't matter what I said, what had happened in his past with his children and the son he had sent to the prison world. All that mattered was that he had sent our twins there, that they were lost to us.

I found myself reacting, doing that thing I had done in New Orleans, and I simply put an illusion of myself continuing to stand there, continuing to listen as Kol spoke of getting our twins back, and in the middle of my illusion, I cloaked myself as well, ensuring no one saw me disappear.

"Has it ever occurred to you that your mother doesn't hate you?" he asked, and he looked between the three Mikaelson siblings. "She hates what you've become, but she would not willingly kill her own grandchildren if there wasn't cause. If these children are left to live in this world, darkness will come, a darkness that you can't escape."

I didn't know what he meant, but I was behind him. I could hear Kol continuing to argue with him, could see the fire in his eyes—the _pain_. He knew what prison worlds were. He knew the kind of life the twins would have there, as _infants_.

How was that fair? How was that right? It wasn't. They would absolutely never stay there.

Behind him, I could sense magic around him. It wasn't just magic in his veins, but around him, as if he had put a protection spell on himself. Smart move, but it didn't matter. We couldn't kill him anyways.

Take him hostage? That we could do, until we learned exactly how to get the twins back. One way or another, we would have our twins, and the Gemini would be taken care of.

Maybe we could send him to a prison world after all.

As I started to siphon the protection spell from him, I noticed a vibration somewhere on his body. I noticed his hands moving to his pocket, pulling a cell phone just far enough from his pocket to reveal the screen.

 _Prisca broke the Ascendant, and Shea killed Iris. We have to reschedule._

This was it, now or never.

My eyes closed, and I continued to siphon the magic from his protection spell. I did so slowly, ensuring I had the chance to do the spell to link the twins to Klaus' life. It was easy enough to memorize, especially with the twins life at stake. It wasn't many words, and I could say them out-loud underneath the cloaking spell, beneath the protection it provided.

The warmth that Shea and Prisca said I might feel surged through me, and I knew then to focus on just Joshua, on ensuring he could _never_ hurt my children again.

He tucked the phone back into his pocket and cleared his throat, keeping his expression completely solemn, as if his entire plan hadn't just backfired because of the people he called his nieces, his family.

Shea wasn't going to be okay. She killed her sister, but they had acted. They had protected the twins at all costs, and as far as I was concerned, they were family, too.

I would forever be in their debt, as soon as we got out of this mess.

"Excuse me. I was just receiving confirmation that it was done." He shifted, however, the more I began siphoning away the protection spell, and I could feel it gone. I could feel his body no longer protected by the magic he had hoped would save him. From the way his body stiffened, I imagined that he felt it, too. "Phasmatos oculix."

I didn't know what that was supposed to do, not until Kol's eyes landed on me, but I knew then that I had to act. Without wasting a single moment, I grabbed onto his neck and snapped.

"Darcy!"

I hadn't thought about what I was doing until his body fell from the chair, until the witches around us began using pain infliction spells on me—on all of us.

Their spell had nothing on what began happening to my body.

* * *

 **A/N: So when I was writing this part out, my little sister kept asking me if she was ever gonna trigger her curse. This was pretty much the plan from the beginning of the story, when I planned for her to have kids that the Gemini came after. It was supposed to happen a lot sooner than it did, with a shitty and rushed ending, but thanks to some encouragement and a revival in my spirit into this story, I will see it through and give it proper justice.**

 **I'm working on chapter 7 of part 3 right now, and I have through chapter 34 of the outline written out. Let me just tell you. So much stuff happens, but it's not over complicated. It's just New Orleans. Crazy things happen every day there, at least in the Vampire Diaries world. :)**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy. :)**


	45. 44: Unleashed

"Look out, I'm breaking free.  
Overcome, chains undone.  
No fear can hold me down.  
I know I can rise above it."

 _Breaking Free_ : Skillet

* * *

It started with my legs, snapping in half as if they were nothing more than twigs. One leg, immediately followed by the other, and I was on the ground, doing whatever I could to silence my pain.

They were inflicting pain on me, but that pain didn't even matter. This was worse, the werewolf that I had kept dormant for so long finally being released.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so horrible had the pain infliction not been in my mind, making every moment seem as if it lasted an eternity on its own. Agony, mind-splitting agony was all that I could feel.

I felt it in my arms, twisting them around and snapping more bones until they were straight in front of me, at an angle a human shouldn't be able to hold their arms.

Klaus had shown me once, when my curiosity got the better of me. He showed me what would happen if I triggered my curse, now that I was a vampire, and it was as horrifying as it looked in his memories.

Bones cracked all throughout my body, but just as I felt it pressing my spine, moving to curve it in just the right way, the pain in my mind subsided. I could think straight again, and the bones cracking around the room were suddenly not just my own.

One final crack of my spine, and something unleashed. The very essence of the werewolf curse was released, the beast that hid inside of me for all of my life until this point, came pushing out.

Everything was hazy. Everything was darker than I remember, but all I could think about was killing something, some _one_.

"Darcy." Kol was suddenly in front of me, with his hands reaching down to grab onto my face, and it all stopped. The darkness, the curse of it all, it was just gone, and I felt more like myself than I had all night.

The tears in his eyes confused me, until the pain was fully gone. It began subsiding, bones healing themselves back to how they should be, but with the absence of physical pain, the rest suddenly came flooding through.

I just . . . I just killed someone, someone whose life was connected to _hundreds_ , if not thousands. I just killed hundreds of people.

"No."

I couldn't breathe, couldn't even think straight, but the room felt hotter, a million thousand degrees hotter. My brain was scrambling, trying to focus, but when I dared to take a glance around the room, all I saw were people lying dead around me, their necks snapped and completely how they shouldn't have been.

My body began shaking with the tremoring in my lungs. "I-I-I—no."

He gripped me against him, with the strength that only an Original vampire could hold someone, and I hated that it helped. The pain was ripping through me faster than I was prepared for, with the intensity that came with having super heightened emotions, but _fuck_ , it hurt. It every single piece of me, and I couldn't handle this, not right now.

"Love, what about the twins?"

"The twins." I was on my feet, running around the table to grab my phone from my jacket, but the screen was hard to read. It was hard to see exactly what the words said, whose numbed I had pulled up. With trembling hands, I handed it to Kol. "Find Bonnie's contact."

He was beside me in a second, and he took my phone to do as I asked. I heard it begin ringing, so I assumed he went ahead and called her for me.

Pressing the phone to my ear, I let my body melt into his embrace, let the only thing that could ease the pain soothe me for this single moment. When the fear had passed, when I was certain that this had worked, I could let it consume me because for now, the twins were safe.

"Hey." Bonnie took a deep breath, and it sounded like there were tears in her voice. "Everyone's okay."

"Did it work?" My voice sounded empty, and that only had my hands trembling more. What had I just done?

"The twins are alive." I could feel Kol relax against me, hear the breaths of relief around the room from the other two who had no idea what was happening either. "The Gemini in the room suddenly had their necks snapped, but the twins are okay. I guess that means it did."

I curled into Kol's arms, and his grip only tightened. "S-Shea and Prisca? Are they okay?"

"Prisca gave up trying to convince her to become a vampire the moment Iris walked in with an ascendant, covered in Bennett blood," Bonnie whispered. "I can only assume that whatever had the Gemini believing that they were justified in murdering infants was able to convince Lucy as well. When the Gemini came in, they were using powerful spells, had us all on the ground paralyzed, but when Iris came in with the Ascendant, demanding to know where the twins were, Shea broke the leg off a table and . . . well, I guess you can fill in the blanks." She took a deep breath. "Are you okay?"

"I just killed someone." I couldn't hold onto the phone anymore, and it fell from my hands, onto the table beside me. It shattered the plate it landed on, and something about that ripped me from the comforts, pulled the pain out from me faster than I was ready for.

Kol seemed ready for this, and he crushed me back into him. "Darcy, love, please breathe."

"I just-I just killed . . . Kol, I just killed hundreds of people, maybe thousands." Saying it out-loud had the pieces inside of me shattering like the plate my phone hand landed in. "I've never-I've never killed anyone bef-before. I just—fuck!"

He buried my face into my neck, forcing me further into his embrace, and I felt his own chest shaking. "You did what you had to do."

"I-I saw the text, the Gemini telling him that Iris was dead and the Ascendant was broken." I gripped the fabric of his shirt, not allowing myself to feel the comfort of the soft material between my fingers. "I just-I just acted. I didn't-I couldn't—why didn't I just knock him out?"

"Had you not killed him, the Gemini wouldn't have let us out of the room," he insisted, and he pulled me away now, forcing me to look up at him. There were tears staining his cheeks red, tears that I had felt the moment Joshua's neck snapped.

The physical pain of unleashing my curse, plus the agony of the pain infliction spell on my mind, had been too much for my body to handle, with the anguish lingering underneath at what I had done. It didn't occur to me until the physical subsided, but my body was responding with tears anyways.

Was this it? Was this when I finally gave something up for the sake of my kids? I had left town when I found out that I was pregnant, but I got to come back. I got to enjoy my life, live with the family that I loved and the family that I learned to love. Everything I had given up had come back to me, and it became paradise. There was no sacrifice for me anymore.

Was this it? Was I giving up my humanity to ensure they were safe?

I had turned a teenager into a vampire without even considering another option. I had killed the entire Gemini coven with one snap of a neck. I had become this person that I didn't recognize, though Kol insisted he did. He said that this person was me, and I couldn't . . . Darcy would've never killed someone.

 _No_. She would've killed someone, killed anyone it took to protect her family. She avoided it as a human because she didn't want to be a hybrid sired to Klaus, but as a vampire, there was no reason not to trigger the curse.

Obviously killing an innocent person was horrible, out of the question, but people that were gonna die anyways? Why did it matter if I did it myself or someone else did? We had justified killing hundreds of people to ensure the twins were safe, even if that meant killing children ourselves.

We didn't know who all was in the Gemini, but there had to be kids. Pregnant women? It didn't matter. We allowed ourselves to believe that we were justified in killing them because they brought it on themselves, and they had. They threatened our children, and we did what any family would do—protected them at all costs.

If that made us monsters, then we were monsters, but I wasn't gone. I hadn't thought about killing Joshua myself, though I had feared it would happen simply because the curse would get the better of me, but what did it matter if I did it? If Kol did it? It didn't matter. I still was allowing it to happen, which in essence meant that I was just as guilty.

The curse hadn't driven me to snap his neck myself. It had been my children, my own desire to do whatever it took to ensure they were safe.

I would give up my humanity if it meant giving them a chance to live their lives.

But I didn't have to do that. My humanity was still in there because it hurt, because I had remorse for the things that I did. What made Kol so monstrous those centuries was that it didn't even bother him. He lost sight of the value of human life, and it made a man who didn't care who died around him. As long as he wasn't hungry for blood, that was all he cared about.

He was different now, and maybe it was because he figured out what I did. Life has value, but killing people to protect the twins was just something that was going to happen.

It wasn't like we were asking for it, hoping someone had to die around us. We just wanted our kids to have a normal life, one that wasn't surrounded by all this darkness. I guess I should've known that bringing Kol Mikaelson's children into the world would have consequences, but I hadn't thought that far ahead, not at first. All I could think about was protecting them from the woman who knew I was pregnant before I had, their grandmother.

My humanity was still intact because it hurt, because every piece of me ached at the thought of what I had done, what I would have to continue doing. Klaus was right. Sometimes, death is necessary when someone is so hell bent on killing babies.

My purity was all that I had given up, the Original vampire hybrid—now tribrid—who had never killed anyone. I would gladly give that up over and over again if it meant they were safe, that they had a chance that every child deserved.

One day, I wouldn't have to kill again. The twins would be okay, able to take care of themselves, and I could go back to the Darcy that everyone knew and mocked. The soft one who refused to kill anyone.

If bodies had to pile up between now and then . . . so be it.

* * *

 **A/N: So this kinda implies a lot of darkness, and I contemplated writing Darcy getting lost in the darkness in part 3. Instead, she remains true to herself, with the darkness showing itself when necessary.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy. :)**


	46. 45: More Than Eternity

"I'll be right there for you.  
I'll always adore you.  
My love will restore you.  
Baby, you can count on me."

 _Count On Me_ : Ansel Elgort

* * *

When we made the decision to go home, I hadn't imagined that we would get back so quickly. The very next day, we packed up and went right back home, back to the place we had grown up.

The nursery was only half set up, but there were cribs for them to sleep in. Right now, that was the most important thing. They had a place to sleep, diapers to change into, and formula to drink.

That's where I stood now, leaning against the doorway of the nursery while Elena and Damon sat in the floor with them, holding onto a twin each. Alastor and Theia were becoming far more independent. After mastering holding their heads up, a good month or so before they should've been able to do that, they were sitting up, too—with the support of Damon or Elena's legs, of course.

Everything was getting back to the only normal that we knew. It was almost March, so we had missed quite a lot, but we were vampires with the power of compulsion. All it took was a good cover story, compelling the right people, and we were gonna go back to school, even Kol. I reminded him that he didn't have to, that he could've stayed home with the twins, but he insisted that he wanted to, that he wanted to finish what he started all those months ago.

He came to school for me, and he was finishing it with me. I hated admitting it, but I liked the idea of him being there with me. If I was gonna be forced away from my kids for eight hours, at least he'd be with me.

Rebekah only went back because of the reminder of prom. It would be her first high school dance, and no one was going to stab her in the back for it. She would finally make it, and I was excited to share this moment with her.

Our Saturdays were already booked, from here until prom. She insisted that we would find the perfect dresses, for all of us, and until we did, we weren't going to stop. Even if it meant flying to New York for the weekend to shop at designer stores, we were going to find perfect dresses.

It was a horrifying though, the amount of money I'm sure she was going to spend, but I reminded myself what Elijah and Klaus had declared on their own, what Rebekah had sort of said herself. Unofficially, I was family.

It was enough for me. I had never heard of any of them marrying, or doing anything like that, so as long as they saw me as family, saw me for what I was—the love of Kol's life and the mother of his children—I didn't need a ring or paper to tell me that I was family, that they cared about me, too.

"Are you able to believe this is real?"

I looked over at the man who had spoken, the man who consumed pretty much every thought I had that wasn't on the twins or something productive. Sometimes, he even found his way into those thoughts, and I absolutely loved it.

There was a smile on his lips, the most beautiful smile in the world, and his eyes weren't on me, instead focused on the two little miracles sitting in the floor.

Impossible miracles, but they were here, and they were alive and well. There was a coffin downstairs to thank for that, and I was going to make the most of every moment, for both of us.

"It's a bit hard," I admitted, barely remembering that Kol had asked me a question. "With everything we've gone through to get here, I'm struggling to wrap my head around it. We're safe."

"I'm not entirely sure it's over just yet," he sighed, and he leaned his frame into the doorway as well. His gaze shifted back to mine, to hold onto mine, and there was only a small amount of fear, as the rest was too overpowering.

"Are you worried about Marcel?"

He shook his head and let out a breath. "It's not Marcel I'm worried about."

"Davina was pretty angry," I agreed.

"Just a fiery spirit," he disagreed. "She seemed loyal to Marcel. Above all else, he wouldn't blatantly stand in opposition to Nik, not enough to endanger the twins."

"If not Marcel, then the witches?" I asked, mostly just for confirmation. I had stupidly believed that the woman was earnest when she said that she didn't want to kill the twins, but I saw the truth of it now, now that I had had a conversation with the Gemini. They were willing to send infants to a place that was worse than death, so at this point, I wasn't going to believe anyone was okay with them, except the ones within the circle of people who had already proven they would give their lives to protect them.

He took a deep breath. "The witches, my mother."

That was the hardest thing for me to swallow, the fact that their own grandmother wanted them dead. She was surely on the Other Side watching, watching as they grew like normal children, as they _lived_ like normal children. That's all they were, infants with the potential to be something more. I had that same potential, but no one killed me. Even those who knew, such as the Gemini . . . they didn't kill me.

Then again, they probably didn't expect me to become an Original, even surrounded by them. The Originals didn't think to make others like them. It hadn't happened until Kol and Bonnie turned me into one.

"So we have to go to New Orleans then?"

"I'm afraid we will," he whispered, and he rubbed his lips together. "Not so soon, though. We're going to get through the first year of their life, maybe more. Right now, all we know is that the witches of New Orleans know about the twins. They're powerless, however, because Marcel has control of the city."

That was true. Marcel was in control of New Orleans in a weird way, with the power to sense the witches using magic. Somehow, he could keep them from doing that. They were afraid of him, afraid to stand against him, so something told me that there was more to his control of them than what it seemed.

How _did_ he know whenever they used magic?

"Are you feeling okay?"

Hearing Elena's voice ripped me from my wandering thoughts, and I gave her the best smile I could, all things considered. Was I okay? Honestly, that was a weird thing to think about.

I murdered hundreds, maybe thousands, and if the night before had any indication of what was to come, sleeping would be hard for a while. I had dreamed about them, the children I might've murdered, and it haunted me. It might haunt me for a long time, maybe forever.

It was the choice I had made, and I had to own it. There was the idea of turning off my humanity, but that only temporarily kept the pain away. It wasn't a fix, and I didn't want to turn the pain off. If I was going to make a choice, I had to deal with the consequences of it.

My children were alive and safe, though. We were back home, and everyone was getting their chance to graduate high school. Jeremy insisted he wasn't going back, and most times, Elena would've protested _hard_ , but what purpose did going back serve? He had pretty much dedicated his life to protecting the twins, and that didn't require a high school diploma, especially not a college diploma.

If he wanted to go back and finish, or even try his hand at something in college, he had forever to do it. He could do it later, when things were safe for certain—when the twins didn't need anyone to protect them.

That didn't mean we _wouldn't_ still protect them, but one day, they would be strong enough to do it on their own, and they would be immortal, if that was the life they wanted.

I killed hundreds. Klaus was daggered in the basement, but the twins were safe. We were back home, and everyone was getting the chance to graduate. Things were good, the best kind of good they could be.

"Just tired," I said, which was very true. Aside from the exhaustion that came from triggering my curse, from the emotional turmoil I had gone through at the home, I hadn't slept.

There was also the memory of the moment I came back through the doors. I found Shea immediately, and we hugged. We cried. We just held one another until we ended up collapsing on the floor, and we cried for hours. The thing that made it so beautiful was the people around us. Everyone who had taken this journey with me, who had gotten me from the scared pregnant woman trying to do it all on her own to the Original tribrid mother, with the most amazing twins, stood around us, giving us all the comfort they knew.

Shea had murdered her own sister, and I had murdered everyone else. Those were two things that neither of us ever wanted to do, but we had done it, for the sake of the twins. Her rage at the Ascendant, the idea of the twins in the prison world, drove her to stop her sister at all costs, and it had driven me to murder the entirety of the Gemini coven.

Yet we came out. The twins came out. Everything was okay, and it was time for grieving and healing. It was time for our lives to become whatever we wanted them to be.

"Awakening the werewolf lying dormant inside of you will do that to you," Damon reminded me. "Then there's all the traveling you've done in the past few days."

I went from Phoenix to New Orleans, from New Orleans to Atlanta, and the finally from Atlanta to Mystic Falls, and it had all happened in a matter of three days, probably the longest three days that I would ever go through.

Fuck, what did I just ginx myself to endure?

I gave him the best smile I could at the moment. "I'm glad it took this long."

"You should rest," Elena said, and I saw her eyes soften, fill with the pain she felt for me. She hadn't had to do this, to make the decision herself, but she had to watch me suffer for my choices. "You can spend the entire day with them tomorrow."

"We're going back to school tomorrow," I disagreed, and I let out a breath. "I've missed more than anyone. I probably shouldn't miss anymore."

Every movement as a vampire felt effortless, almost as if I was gliding across the floor, and in that moment, it was easier to appreciate it. I came to take Alastor from Damon, who gave him up without protest. He stood from the floor, moving towards the doorway, and I made myself comfortable in the floor, close to Elena and Theia.

It wouldn't be long until they went to bed. Theia's drooping eyes were proof enough, but I wanted to spend the last moments with them. It had been a long few days, but it had been longer since I had really gotten a chance to see them. I missed them, so much.

"I'm not one to say this, but I misjudged you." Damon's words were soft, almost as if he was trying to ensure I didn't hear them, but I heard them loud and clear. I knew who they were meant for. "There were three people in the world I cared about more than my own life, and I made the mistake of believing that you wanted to hurt one of them. I couldn't have been more wrong."

Though I smiled, I didn't look away from Alastor, who had let himself fall back against my legs. Sitting up on his own must've been exhausting because he just fell back, let his eyes wander up to me, and he smiled.

Damn that smile. It would stop a lot of hearts one day.

"You look like you need sleep, too." I leaned down and pressed my lips against the top of his head, and he only began to laugh. "Your sister is developing narcolepsy."

Kol came over next to us, to reach down and grab Theia from Elena, and I stood with Alastor. They didn't have anything that even remotely resembled a bed time schedule, but I could just add that to the list of things the world would've used to declare me a bad mom. They had no schedules, and even if things hadn't been so crazy, I didn't imagine that would've been different. If they were hungry, I would feed them. If they were sleepy, I would put them to sleep.

When things were calm, however, for those few weeks of peace we had after moving to Phoenix, the one thing we tried to do before bed was bathe them. The bathtubs everywhere we went were always plenty big enough, even for two little baby bath seats to be placed inside.

That's what we did. We took them to the bathroom, and we gave them a bath together. It wasn't the first time we had done it, but it had been a long time. It was something simple, something that most people didn't even think about. It was just something they did, and they never stopped to appreciate the beauty of that moment.

It was just the four of us, the twins getting bathed by their mom and their dad. I tried to take care of them as best I could, and Kol had adapted and learned on the go. He had learned so much in just a month, and we both had so much more to learn.

We would do that, though, together.

After their bath was finished, as we were changing them into their warm, footed pajamas, I got lost in thought. I got lost in the reminder of the day that I had sent them away.

They were born on December 13, and we were back with their family by January 13. I got the chance to take one month pictures, but I had sent them away, on February 13. They were going away from me on the day they turned two months old, and I could never get that day back.

Maybe it was stupid, but this wasn't going to happen again. There would be no more babies in any of our lives, unless someone decided to adopt—which would be cool. I don't imagine anyone had ever thought to do that before, but it'd be fun to watch more kids grow up around us.

I missed their two month birthday. What else was I going to miss?

"I sent them away."

Kol finished buttoning the clasps of Theia's pajamas and picked her up carefully, though his eyes found me. "You did what you had to do, Darcy. It was the best decision."

I didn't want to cry anymore, but my eyes were pricking with tears anyways. "They left . . . February 13."

"I know."

He was so calm, as if he had already had this own thought in his head. When I stared at him, I found him smiling, found his eyes burning with that damned look I hadn't gotten an explanation for yet, other than happy.

Was that all it was? Did I just make him so happy that a new light had to shine?

I'd take it.

As he watched me studying him, his smile only grew. "I kept up with it, you know. I missed their birth, but I wasn't going to miss anything else. So I asked Elena to take those month pictures you like, the ones you wanted. Things have been too chaotic to show you, I'm sure, but she took them for you."

What could I even say? What could I even do? He had thought about things that I hadn't, done things to look out for me and make me happy that went beyond all else he had done thus far. He ensured that even when my mind was too preoccupied to think about it, I got my two month pictures.

I would have them to carry on throughout the centuries. I would have those memories to hold onto. He saw to that personally.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I love you."

He let out a breath of a laugh, but he moved away now, over to place Theia in her crib. "I have an idea."

Baths could work both ways for the twins. They could get them ready to sleep, or they could wire them up. We used a special nighttime shampoo with lavender to help ensure it did the latter, and this time, it worked. Paired with the exhaustion they already felt, the lavender soap did them in, and they were asleep within minutes. Kol didn't even have to rub Theia to sleep. She just went to sleep.

We hesitated, taking a few moments to just stand there and watch them, to watch their peaceful slumbers. Everything was going to be okay now, at least for a time. We could enjoy these moments of peace to the fullest, and we would. As soon as it warmed up outside, we'd enjoy the world around us. We would teach them to sit up on their own somewhere on the massive Mikaelson property, and they would know the beauty of the world around them.

They would get that chance.

When we finally decided to leave, to head to our room, I couldn't get us there fast enough. I didn't wanna be _too_ obvious about it, but fuck, I was impatient. I had spent the entire night before crying, and I didn't wanna do that tonight. Tonight, I wanted to feel good, even if my thoughts dared to remind me that I didn't deserve it. Our time together had been spent with a lot of selfish moments, and I was going to take another one on my own terms.

I practically danced across the room, over to the nightstand where I had pre-placed something specific, something I needed to ensure that we got this moment of complete and total privacy.

His eyebrows rose at the sight of it, a rather devious grin tugging at one side of his lips. "Is that sage?"

"Mmhmm." With a bit of magic, I lit the end of it and whispered the words to the spell. It had taken some time to get right the first time, when Shea first showed it to me, but I knew how to do it now, knew the power it took from inside of me, so I could do it on my first try.

"What would we need a privacy spell for?"

I set the sage on the table and turned back to him with the most triumphant smile I knew how to give. "Uh, something hot and loud and fun, and most importantly, selfish."

His teeth scraped across his bottom lip, and his eyes set fire the moment I said the word selfish. "Darcy Gilbert."

My body was pinned back onto the bed in a second, with both the strength and speed of an Original vampire holding me in place. It also had a lot to do with the fact that I had no desire to move from this position, ever, especially when his lips fiercely found mine.

It was the kind of kiss that could actually set us on fire, which was dangerous but fine with me. The twins would be gotten out in time, and it wasn't like the fire would kill the two of us.

All too soon, his lips were ripped from mine, and he gave me a much softer smile. "You need to sleep, love."

"No," I disagreed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck to give me the pull I needed to yank his body back against mine. "I need comfort after a stressful day. I'm very pent up. I need some release."

That made him laugh, but it was soft, almost half-hearted. There was something more in his eyes, something I didn't wanna think about right now—pain. "You know you're going to have to talk to me about this eventually, right?"

"There's nothing to talk about," I said. "I killed people, lots of people—people who wanted to send my kids to a prison world, at two months old. That's worse than killing them, so I did what I had to do, what I will always do if someone tries to hurt them again."

The pain was gone for the moment, replaced by something brighter and much hotter. The desire, the consuming fire we felt for one another, was coming back, and _that_ was what I wanted to see right now. The rest could wait until the morning.

"I love you," he whispered, and in his own form of submission to my desire to be selfish, he began moving his lips closer to mine.

My lips were a smile against his. "As I love you."

The way he kissed me, fully pressed his lips to mine, was somehow different. There was the intensity, the passion, but there was something more. Pressed with a firm touch, he pulled my face closer to his, to ensure there wasn't a chance I might slip away from him.

With the galaxy wide open above us, with his scent overpowering my senses, this was the only thing that mattered anymore, his lips on mine, his body against mine. Had I not been already laying back on the bed, I might've clung to him, held onto him as the only solid thing to keep me on my feet, but with him already on top of me, dominating me in the most pleasurable of ways, there was nothing more I could do, except move this process along.

The only reason he broke the kiss was so I could slip his shirt over his head, but his lips were on mine the very second the article was removed. His lips, his hands, he held me as if I might slip away if he didn't, if he didn't cling to me.

I let my hands wander down the definition of his chest, through each contour, and the rush of the moment caught up to me, sending shivers through me that resonated all the way through my veins, through each and every nerve that had come to life since being turned into a vampire.

I barely made it to his belt before he suddenly fell off of me, pushed himself off the bed and ran across the room. Holy fuck, I had never felt so lost before, and it probably showed when I sat up, when I watched him dig through one of the bags still sitting in the corner of the room.

He glanced back at me, though his hand still scoured through the bag for whatever he was trying to find. I couldn't imagine what in the hell might be so damn important that he find it _now_ , but I trusted he had a reason. He was pretty insatiable himself, so if he stopped things from moving in that direction, there was a reason.

"There's something I want to ask you, and I've looked up a million different ways to do it, at least a hundred different ways to say it, and I can't quite figure it out." His hand stopped scouring, and he stood up straight, to focus on me entirely. I expected to find something in his hand, but there was nothing. "I don't know how to do this, but I know you, and I know how you are as a person. You're timeless, yet you're not one for fancy or elaborate things. You're the most incredible person in the world, my favorite person in all of the world, and I don't want to live in a world without you."

It wasn't the first time Kol had said sweet things like this, but right now, they were everything that I needed to hear again. I needed to be reminded that Kol loved me for all of eternity, no matter what happened. We were in this crazy ride together, through whatever may come.

He came over to the bed, and he didn't just resume what he had interrupted. He pulled me up from the bed, pulled me a few steps back, and now, I was beyond confused. First, he stops the moment to get nothing out of his bag, and he continues derailing it to stand me up?

"This may be another stupid decision of mine, but everything about it feels right."

It all made perfect sense the moment he took my hand, with one that wasn't balled into a fist, and slid down onto one knee. At that point, the tears I had been fighting all day pretty much came pouring down, but these didn't hurt. They didn't sting, didn't pull from the parts of my heart that were hurting.

These tears of joy were something else entirely, and I absolutely couldn't contain them.

"Will you do me the honor of being my wife, so that I may call you by the name that is most fitting to the mother of my beautiful children? Will you allow me to make you Darcy Mikaelson?"

I had to swallow, to take a very deep breath, but I hoped the smile that grew was answer enough for him—because fuck yes I would! "Can I tell you something?"

His eyes softened, and his smile only grew. I think he enjoyed seeing me this way, so overwhelmed with joy at something he had done, and he was going to appreciate all of it, even the tears. "Anything."

"That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard you say," I whispered, but the moment I did, I realized that was wrong. Lately, he had a lot of sweet things to say. "Well, one of anyways."

"I'm not very good at it, I'll admit."

I shook my head. "No, Kol, that was beautiful."

He let out a breath. "Well, it was from the heart. I hoped to say it right. I've never put much thought into what I might say in that moment."

"Also, I was always so worried Theia and Alastor might one day realize that our last names weren't the same because I never really thought much about whether you'd want to marry me or not." I realized that I was beginning to ramble the moment the words poured out of my lips quickly, so I stopped myself before I could go on further, before I could ruin this perfect moment with my crazy ramblings.

"Of course I do," he whispered, and his tongue slid across his lips. "But I'd like to know if you want to marry me."

"What?" Oh, yeah, shit. Smiles weren't answers, and the way I had rambled wasn't an answer either, not the answer he deserved. "Oh! Of course I would. I would love to be Darcy Mikaelson."

When his hand opened, I was actually a bit blown away by the ring in the center. It was . . . beyond breathtaking, a rose gold diamond masterpiece. It was vintage design, with a diamond halo around the large oval diamond in the center, and the band itself was covered with unique designs accented by diamonds, without an overwhelming amount of them.

To see it slid onto my finger, to see the large stone in comparison to my small fingers, I was almost nervous to wear it, but it fit perfectly. It felt right.

I felt him standing, but I couldn't look away from it, look away from the reality that had just happened.

Kol proposed to me. I said yes.

We were engaged.

When my eyes finally tore from the ring, over to him, I understood. That glow that had been unanswered, all the questions I had in my mind about what the hell he was up to . . . they were answered.

He was getting an engagement ring. He was proposing to me.

I think he expected it when I grabbed onto him and pulled us back over to the bed, and with the moment out of the way, it was time to dive right into another. He was right about one thing. I wouldn't have had the proposal any other way. It was simple, in the privacy of our room, beneath a privacy spell. We were completely alone to cherish this moment together, to carry it with us forever.

We were gonna get married.

* * *

 **A/N: I couldn't _not_ put this in. I contemplated the idea that it was too soon, but they've already sort of declared their eternal love and relationship. She's already been declared a Mikaelson. Seriously, this was just fitting. :)**

 **I originally said that there would be 45 chapters in this part, and then I changed it to 46. I'm changing it back to 45. This is the last chapter, and what was chapter 46 is now the epilogue of this part. The flow of the stories just worked a lot better if I ended it with the next chapter being the epilogue, with the original epilogue serving as a perfect prologue for the next part, Spell It Out.**

 **I hope you guys are still enjoying the story! Some of the reviews you guys have given seriously made me smile. Being told that my writing is emotionally compelling is, hands down, one of the best compliments you can give because that's what I want it to be, above all else.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy! :)**


	47. E: Prom Day

"I think me and you should blow this off.  
So much for the after-party. Let's tell everybody we got lost.  
I think me and you should do our own thing.  
Our own way, at my place, far away . . .  
. . .You know what I want. I got what you need.  
Take it from me."

 _Take It From Me_ : Jordan Davis

* * *

I couldn't believe I was missing it, a song from our middle school years that I had become the master at singing and rapping. Wearing nothing but pajamas and socks, running across the marble floors was hard to do, but I was a vampire, damn it. I was gonna do it one way or another.

The music echoed through the house loud enough that I didn't have to be a vampire to hear it. Vampire speed got me into the living room with the rest of my friends, everyone involved in our pre-prom girl's day we had established as a necessity. There were some hesitant to give us the entire mansion to ourselves, but one reminder to Kol that I needed a day to talk to the girls about the life-changing decision we had made, he helped clear the house.

Elena and Caroline were already dancing to the song, while the others in the room simply sat around drinking wine and laughing at their carelessness. It was a beautiful thing to see, all things considered. Tonight was a night that we had all been eager to get to, even if we thought we had given it up.

We _hadn't_. We were going to prom, and we were gonna get a chance to graduate.

There were far less women in the house than those I considered family, but that was because Prisca and Maisyn were gone, working to break the sire bond. After trying the "no humanity" thing, to no avail, the only available option was to turn over and over until it no longer hurt.

Shea was with them, helping any way that she could, and of course Sutton followed her to all ends of the earth. He had no desire to break his sire bond, however, so he was just helping Maisyn remember that she wanted to, that she wanted the freedom to travel the world without constantly worrying and panicking about Theia's safety.

I was more than okay with her decision. Aside from the promise she made to help out if the twins' lives were ever in danger, regardless of whether she was sired or not, I wanted them to have free will. They had done so much for us, sacrificed so much, and I wasn't gonna let their free will be another of those things.

The only ones in the house were the ones going to prom: Rebekah, Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, and Ayven. With her growing relationship with Stefan, it was only fitting that Ayven come with us, and we learned that she hadn't gotten a chance to go to her own high school prom, after killing those people, triggering her curse, and having to live life on the run. It was only fitting that her first high school prom be ours as well.

Rebekah tried to protest the notion of a girl's day, but all it took was me asking her to allow me to have a day of carelessness with my sisters for her to relent. She was rather fond of me, and the idea of me being her sister. She insisted that there were too many men in the Mikaelson family, that there needed to be more women.

She had no idea that what she was saying was real, that it was something more than their decision to include me. She had no idea that I was going to become a Mikaelson, officially.

Despite her hesitance, I had never seen her so relaxed. She was having fun, laughing at Elena and Caroline as they danced to _Super Bass_ , but when everyone noticed me in the room, they gestured me forward, beckoning me to jump into the rapping lyrics that I had perfected better than anyone.

It had been years, but that didn't mean I had forgotten the lyrics, that I had lost my touch. Singing the chorus and dancing around carelessly was fun, the kind of fun that someone could only have surrounded by people they genuinely cared about, and rapping along to the chorus was just as much fun, especially when I jumped on the table and used one of the empty wine bottles as a microphone.

Though the song was mostly catchy and just words, singing the chorus had a profound effect on me. It had been just catchy before, but I was in love. Fuck, I was _engaged_ , to a man who could look at me and get my heart soaring in my chest as if it was a fucking hummingbird flying for its life.

As the song came to an end, any of us who were standing fell onto the empty couch together, close enough to one another that we were actually touching, but it was Caroline and Elena. It wasn't even remotely uncomfortable.

Rebekah's eyes lit up like the sun shining through the crystal of the chandeliers in most of the rooms. "Is this what girls normally do before prom?"

The laugh that erupted out of me was effortless, the kind of sound that came from someone who was simply happy. "I don't know, but it's what _we're_ doing."

Rebekah tried to fight the smile that pulled at the corners of her lips, but the only way for her to actually do that was to drink from the wine glass in her hands. She didn't say anything in response, however, so I imagined that she rather liked it, no matter how silly she declared it to be.

Caroline cleared her throat. "Okay, so, as much as I _love_ this girl's day, you know I have to ask."

It wasn't a huge secret that I had insisted we have this day, and it wasn't a huge secret that it wasn't like me to declare a girl's day. I couldn't remember a time where it had actually been by choice that I had gone to one, so for _me_ to insist we have a girls only day, I knew they would be suspicious, to say the least.

I used Rebekah's trick, finishing off what was left of my wine to hide the devious smile I felt twisting across my lips. "Ask what?"

Caroline let out a groan and pointed to me. "That! That right there! What is going on, Darcy Gilbert?"

I leaned forward away from her, towards the table, and I began refilling my glass of wine. It was only my third glass, so it was still safe. "Why can't I just be happy and want a girls' day?"

Bonnie was the first to just stare at me, her lips pressed. "We all know better than that. You may as well just tell us what's going on."

I didn't know how to say it out-loud, so I decided to just _show_ them. I made sure to hold my wine glass in my left hand, to bring it to my lips with my fingers curled in just the right way to show off the seriously massive rock, and I removed the cloaking spell I had put over the ring.

Kol promised that I didn't have to do anything I wasn't comfortable with, but damn it, it was my decision that I was going to own. I agreed to marry him, no matter how crazy it seemed on paper. It fit so perfectly off paper, made so much sense, and I was _happy_.

We were getting married . . . eventually, whenever we could figure it all out.

I didn't expect Bonnie and Caroline to squeal, but I hadn't really known what to expect their reactions to be. We were eighteen, still in high school, and still had our eternities ahead of us—yet they were excited for me to be engaged.

Tears fell down Rebekah's face in an instant, her smile making them something beautiful, and Ayven's jaw dropped, mostly in surprise. I had been excited to see Rebekah's reaction, to see how she responded to seeing that we were going to be sisters officially one day, and it didn't disappoint. I had never seen her eyes shine in my direction quite like they did.

The reaction I was most curious about, however, was the woman sitting to my left, the woman who I had shared a womb with.

"Darcy!" Bonnie exclaimed, before I got a real chance to take in the way Elena's eyes were rounded, the way her lips had become the most beautiful smile regardless of her shock.

I let out a breath and peeled my eyes to Bonnie, away from Elena. "It's crazy, right?"

"Of course it is, but you're _you_ , Darcy!" Caroline all but squealed. "Everything you do is crazy, in the best of ways!"

The smile on Elena's lips only widened when she noticed me looking back at her again. "Wow."

"I know." I found myself smiling without even realizing it, without even thinking about how I might want to smile, and it was the best kind of smile, the one that just happened. "I honestly didn't even think marriage was a thing, you know?"

"What?"

I gave Rebekah a much more sheepish smile, and I bit down on my bottom lip. "Well, I mean, none of you guys have married, and I really had no idea he'd even think about it with all that's happened."

"Everything that's happened has to be why he _did_ think about it." I loved seeing her beautiful face light up the way that it was now, with a joy that I had never really thought I could bring to the Mikaelson family—but I had, to at least two of them. "You're already family, so what could it hurt to make it official?"

I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks, the reminder that they had insisted I move in here. The home I had grown up in was a good twenty minutes from here, and they didn't like the idea of the twins or me being twenty minutes away.

Kol was actually very adamant that I just get my stuff and move in, though there wasn't much to get. I had filled out, as Kol called it, and I couldn't wear the things I could before. I got all my shoes, and a few personal things, but for the most part, I didn't have things to pack.

"I mean, we're obviously not getting married _tomorrow_."

"Obviously," Caroline snorted. "We haven't even started planning."

Bonnie nodded, and even though her lips remained pursed, her smile grew. "And you haven't asked any of us to be a part of it."

"You're so rude," Elena agreed, to only further heighten my elation. Every fear I had when we decided to get married so quickly was for nothing. The people I cared about most, at least the females, were _happy_ for me. I had sent a text to Shea and Prisca before all of this, to ensure everyone knew by the end of the night, and Kol was going to say something to the men, since they were all hanging out. I wanted to be there to talk to Damon, Alaric, and Jeremy, but he insisted that he would take care of it, that everyone would be happy for us.

I only hoped that he was right.

"I want all of you to be a part of it," I assured them. "Even Shea, Prisca, and Maisyn."

Ayven let out a breath of a laugh and finished off her wine glass. "Your side is gonna be so lopsided in comparison to his."

I hadn't actually thought about that—not that it actually mattered to me—but she was sort of right. Obviously Kol had his brothers, minus the one currently daggered in a coffin. There was the idea of waiting until Klaus could come back to get married, but how could the twins be a part of it that way? I could just imagine little Theia walking down the aisle in a beautiful flower girl dress, with Alastor in his little tuxedo carrying the rings for us.

It was too perfect to think of anything else.

She was right, however. I had Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Rebekah, Prisca, Shea, Maisyn, and Ayven. If Sage and Finn wanted to come, it would be rude to not have her up there as well, as she was going to be family whether they liked her or not. Finn absolutely loved her, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were going to marry soon, too.

Kol had Finn and Elijah, and there was Damon and Stefan. Surely Alaric and Jeremy would want to be up there as well, but who else could stand up there? Oryn and Sutton were considered family for all that they had done for the twins, all they had yet to do, so would he want to include them as well?

Maybe, maybe not.

"You're right about that." I took a sip of my wine, but my mind was focused on the people we had in our lives to be a part of this. "He needs more friends."

"Unlikely," Rebekah snorted, though she let out a laugh. "If you wait to get married until my brother has more friends, prepare yourself a wedding at least in a century."

The laughter that erupted around the room was lighthearted, and I found myself laughing with them. I loved Kol very dearly, enough that I did want to marry him, but he wasn't the best at being nice to people, or making friends any other way either. He could compel himself friends, but they were nothing like the real thing, friends who would stick by his side through it all.

He really did need some friends.

I took a deep breath, to stop my laughter in its track and focus back on the conversation we were having—the important conversation that Kol and I hadn't even gotten to have. "I mean, we still have to graduate high school."

"You're eighteen," Ayven said, and her eyes widened. "Holy crap. That's really hard to remember sometimes."

"Right?" I leaned into Elena, around the same moment her arms wrapped around me to pull me into her anyways. "I really thought you guys were gonna tell me I was crazy."

"I mean, what you two have is intense," Elena reminded me, bring me back to the conversation we had had the night before I killed the Gemini, at least a month ago. "You've already pretty much determined you're not leaving one another. This is pretty much just writing all of that on paper, right?"

When she put it that way, it was easy to see what she meant. At every point, I had been declared the unofficial Mikaelson, so what was crazy about making it official? We weren't leaving one another, no matter what, so what was so crazy about it?

Ayven bottom lip poked out, and her eyes began to shimmer. "Aw! I'm just picturing little Theia and Alastor as the flower girl and ring bearer. Oh my gosh!"

"Right?" Bonnie squealed, and she leaned forward a bit, to get herself closer to us all. "They gotta get their practice in. They're gonna do it at least ten times."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, and our wedding is just the practice run for them?"

"Of course."

There were a million different ways I could've responded to what they were saying, but the song had changed to a different one, a song that I hadn't heard in quite a while. It was an incredible song, one I loved listening to, and much like _Super Bass_ , it made me feel free, enough that I didn't think twice about standing up and spinning around the living room.

I grabbed an empty wine bottle to sing into and let myself free, to spin in more circles. "Take it from me if you want a t-shirt to sleep in. It's my favorite, but you can keep it. Looks good, baby. You should leave it hanging off your shoulders. Give me them bare feet dancing down the hall, and smiling at me, running your finger down the hall. You got what I want. I got what you need. Take it from me."

"Kol!"

Rebekah's exclamation wasn't just her screaming her brother's name for no reason, and I immediately stopped what I was doing to spin around, towards the doorway of the ball room we had set ourselves up in. We were vampires, so moving furniture into the ball room to have plenty of room to dance and sit around was easy to do.

His eyes were sparkling like the most beautiful stars in the sky, and I knew it had come from watching me dance that way. It was something he hadn't seen from me in a while, as the last time I remembered dancing freely like that was in our two-day selfish retreat to his hotel room, where I realized fully that I had fallen in love with him.

I folded my arms over my chest and did my best to glare, though I didn't imagine it was believable to a stranger, much less him. "Excuse you."

A smirk grew wild across his lips. "I do live here, princess."

"Yes, but anyone with a dick has been officially banned until you come pick us up for prom."

He nodded. "Well, you weren't answering your phone—"

"That's kinda the point of a girl's day?" I cut him off, and my eyebrows rose. "You leave the boys with cooties out of it in every way."

"Excuse me for not knowing the way this works," he said, but even as he leaned against the archway of the ballroom, there was something nonchalant about the way he moved. "I was concerned."

"Right, because there's a way for me to be dead and you not."

"It's a crazy world, Darcy," he reminded me. "Anything could happen."

There was a hidden smile on his lips, hiding behind even the smirk. There was something less than arrogant shining within his eyes, something that made it easy to read him. Sure, he was worried about me, but he wasn't worried for my safety.

I wasn't answering my phone. He knew what I was doing today, and he knew that I was worried about it. He had been right to not worry, though I was a bit curious how it had gone with Damon, Alaric, and Jeremy—mostly Damon.

Damon was okay with him now, but marriage? It was crazy on paper.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, away from the ballroom, and he didn't stop me from pushing him away. I didn't imagine he would ever stop me from getting the two of us alone.

We were halfway to the door, completely out of sight from everyone else, when he suddenly spun back around to face me, latching onto my waist and gripping me against him.

His lips were so close to my skin, his melted eyes igniting the blood inside my body, but I had to remind myself that this wasn't appropriate, that it was a girls' day and not Darcy and Kol go secretly fuck for half an hour day.

"You just wanted to know how it went, didn't you?"

He let out a breath, and his eyes continued to graze across the features of my face, lingering the longest on my lips. "I'm not a very patient person if you haven't noticed, love."

"Well, go. You're banned from here." Using a telekinesis spell that I had gotten down well at this point, I pushed him back away from me.

It was supposed to be just a little bit away, send him stumbling a few steps back, but it . . . it did more than that. Kol almost flew back into the wall, only didn't because he was able to hold himself up.

My eyes grew wide, and my lungs forgot proper function, instead began trying to grasp onto air like it was the last oxygen in the world. Kol wasn't angry, wasn't even a bit annoyed.

His eyes were soft, and he was suddenly back in front of me, one hand underneath my jaw to tilt my face up towards him. "Darcy?"

I swallowed, something I'm certain he noticed, and I shook my head. "I . . . don't know."

There were a million things we could've said. We could've spent time trying to figure it out, and everyone in the other room would've understood. They would've come in and helped us, but as selfish and stupid as it was, I didn't wanna figure it out right now, not today.

This was a day for the supernatural world to not matter. This was a day for us to be normal teenage girls going to their senior prom, and I wasn't going to ruin it for anyone by announcing that something weird had just happened with my magic.

I grabbed him by the shoulders again, but this time, I didn't turn him away from me. I enjoyed seeing his face, and he needed to see mine, read the decision I had made from it.

I didn't use magic to push him anymore, simply used my tribrid strength that, on my best day, could overpower him just enough that I could pin him down. We had practiced with it, and Kol was able to overpower and outmaneuver me most days, unless I found a way to get angry. I had just enough edge that he couldn't contain me.

He let me get him to the door, and shielded by the opaque glass that the door was made of, he felt completely free to grab onto my face and kiss me. It wasn't meant to stir up any longing, wasn't meant to be anything more than a man kissing the woman that he loved simply because he could.

"I told you it would all be okay."

How he had managed to figure out how it went in the short time he was in the room amazed me, but he _was_ a millennium old. He had learned to spot a witch from a normal person, so of course he could figure out the overall mood towards him.

Had it been anything less than pleasant, he would've known they reacted the way I feared.

Though I smiled, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his once more. "Don't be late."

"We won't," he assured me, and his thumb brushed across the skin of my cheek. "I promise."

I watched him leave down the stairs of the Mikaelson mansion, and I leaned against the doorframe. "What are you guys doing anyways?"

He turned back to face me sharply, and the smirk was back and vibrant across his eyes. "Well, love, that's for me to know and you to not since, you know, it's a guy's day and whatnot."

"You're an asshole."

He wiggled his eyebrows a bit, only moments before he began to laugh. "Yes, but you love me anyways."

I tried to make the sigh sound troubled, heavy, but the truth of it was, I _did_ love him, and it was the best feeling in all of the world. "Yeah, yeah, enough that I wanna marry you."

Since becoming engaged, it hadn't actually been said out-loud. Kol would sometimes fiddle with the ring on my finger and whisper that he loved me, but neither of us had said the word marriage to one another, had never had a chance to really talk about it. Since I wanted to tell everyone before _anything_ was discussed about it, we had stuck to that.

Hearing it said now, seeing the light shining within his eyes . . . fuck, it was beautiful. How had no one seen past the darkness before? Good or bad, there was so much light in his humanity, and I couldn't believe no one saw it.

That was okay. It meant he was all for me, that _I_ would get to marry him.

I didn't even try to hide my own smile at the idea. When I pictured myself getting married, I didn't really have anything in mind, not the wedding or the groom. I kinda didn't think much about it, with the way I used to live beneath Elena's shadow, but that was over now. I got a man who was more than I could've ever hoped to even think of, in every way.

"Now go," I said, and I pushed myself off the doorframe, mostly because I knew that if I lingered any longer, walking away would grow increasingly difficult.

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

I had never been one to get too excited about prom and everything it entailed. Dressing up and making myself look as pretty as I could was always fun to me, and I would take every chance I got to do so, but prom itself, there were too many people. If I was going to dance and dress up, I'd rather it be alone, hidden behind closed doors.

Or not so alone, half naked, dancing to songs that did nothing but turn me on more than I probably already was . . . .

Everyone considered me the expert in all things hair and makeup, even Rebekah. She could make herself look stunning, but for prom night, she wanted someone to do it for her. Since I had already agreed to do everyone else's, why not me?

I was the last to get ready, and I was a bit frantic. I got my hair done in plenty of time, but I had to rush a bit on the makeup. Originally, I wanted to make it seductive and smoky, but there was only time for something simpler, at least once I finished with the rather formal and loose bun I put my curled hair into.

Everyone else looked absolutely perfect, exactly how I envisioned with each of the dresses once I had seen them. When we were searching for dresses, nothing in particular stuck out to Caroline, and when we got back, Elijah presented her with a gift from Klaus.

It was a stunning gown, embellished intricately with the most beautiful designs. I wasn't a fan of mermaid gowns for myself, but Caroline made everything look good.

Ayven went with something more casual, though she still looked amazing in her purple sequin gown. She wasn't big on the whole "girly" thing, and she and Stefan almost opted of prom entirely. We managed to convince them both, however, and it was going to be fun.

It was only fitting that Ayven come, since Oryn was being a gentleman and escorting Caroline, in the absence of the man she wanted to come with her more than anything. I hadn't accounted for the real feelings she felt for Klaus, the ones that went past just being attracted to him. The time spent in Phoenix, she got to see the humanity in him, the pieces of who he was beneath all the horrible things he had done.

Tyler wouldn't even talk to any of us. He hated Klaus for everything he had done, and it didn't matter what reasoning we had to leave town. It didn't matter that I knew them all better than he ever would, that I was in love Klaus' brother. We left town with the Mikaelsons, and he couldn't find a reason to justify that.

It was fine. He didn't need to know about the twins, so if we had to cut ties, consider them cut.

Rebekah's yellow gown was brighter than I anticipated, but she made everything look good. After some time back in Mystic Falls, making amends with the people who knew about the supernatural and knew we had up and left without much of a goodbye, Matt and Rebekah decided to go as prom dates. There was a bit of spark there, but even Rebekah knew that it was something that would never last. They could have fun while it was there, but it was temporary.

The day that I told Matt about the twins, that I let him meet him, he was completely stunned, and a bit overwhelmed. He had no idea what to say or do with them, but the more he was around them, the more he opened up and adjusted. He fell in love with them as easily as anyone else had, and all aversion he might've had to any of the Mikaelsons disappeared. He still wasn't so sure about Klaus, but hearing that he had given up his time to use his life to ensure the twins were safe gave him a bit of good feelings towards him anyways.

Obviously Elena was going with Damon, wearing a beautiful baby pink floor length, and Bonnie, looking stunning in her deep blue strapless gown, was obviously dragging a reluctant Jeremy along. I told him that if he wasn't gonna finish high school, he had to go to prom, not that he would've said no to Bonnie anyways. The boy was absolutely smitten, and of course, I was completely obnoxious about the fact that I kicked him in the ass when he needed it and forced him to make amends.

Amends were made. They were adorable and happy.

With one final lipstick check, I glanced back at the group behind me, to do a quick check of each hairstyle. Everything was in its proper place, so I rubbed my lips together and took the first step out of the bathroom.

Everyone wanted to make grand entrances into the room, individually, but I wanted absolutely no part of that. I was going down first, by myself, and I was going to make sure it wasn't a grand reveal.

I had to pick up the skirt of the long crimson gown I wore and had to adjust my foot further into the gold stilettos hiding underneath. When I imagined prom, I pictured myself in something lace and something very modest, very safe, but that wasn't what I found.

At first, I insisted that it was too much. With the lower cut, there was cleavage, though not an excessive amount. It wasn't indecent, but with my post-pregnancy body, it was hard for me to make the choice to wear the stunning gown, as it fit along every curve so beautifully. Past my waist, the skirt of the dress simply cascaded to the floor, with a bit of train on the back of it, and wrapping around the ribcage area of the dress and adorning the shoulders were beautiful golden details. It was stunning, nothing I ever imagined, especially with the long sleeves, but everyone had encouraged me to go for it.

There was also the fact that it was red, and Kol had a weird thing for red, one that I could have a lot of fun with.

I knew he was going to very much enjoy the dress, but I couldn't have prepared for the way that he really looked at me. There was no shame. He was in the middle of a conversation with Damon, but he just abruptly stopped, let his mouth hang open while his eyes set the house on fire around us.

Despite the stilettos, I moved quickly down the stairs, holding onto the skirt nervously with each step. It helped him get over his surprise, only because his smile had turned into something humorous.

"So everyone decided to make these individual grand entrances, but I wanted no part of that." I wrapped my arms around Kol's waist, and he got a full, close up view of the slit in the front—not that he was going to complain about that one bit. "I decided, fuck that, so since I did all the work today, I got to just walk down."

"You are magnificent, love."

I didn't know what he meant by that, but it took my breath away anyways. With the way he was staring down at me, with more than just desire burning in the depths of his eyes, I knew it was a wonderful compliment, the best he knew how to give.

It wasn't long after my quick descent downstairs that the show began. Caroline insisted that she go first, since Oryn was simply escorting her as a friend. That didn't mean she didn't want to show off how stunning she looked for all to see, but she wanted to go first.

The distraction each beautiful woman provided gave Kol a chance to grab onto me, to bring his ear close to my ear and breathe, "Can we just skip this entire thing and stay right here?"

The skin beneath my cheeks grew flush, a surge of the desire he could so easily ignite in me rushing throughout my bloodstream, but I shook my head anyways, even if every part of my body was screaming in agreement. "No."

"The house is empty," he groaned, but he wasn't giving up just yet. His teeth sank into the flesh of my ear, scraping with just enough force to barely hurt.

"We're going." I pushed him back away from me and gave him the best damn smirk my crimson lips could give, and seeing me standing here like this only further fanned his lust flames. "I'm only dragging you to _one_ high school prom for our entire lifetime. You can suffer through one."

"Fine."

Though he submitted, that didn't mean he was going to make it easy. Noticeably raking his eyes across my body, lingering on the bits of flesh that were exposed—particularly the dimple in my collar bone—he was ridiculous and insatiable, and _fuck_ , why did I let them talk me into this dress?

I leaned up a bit, with the heels giving me much more height than I usually had, and I pressed my lips against his cheek.

The moment I did, my eyes bugged. "Shit!"

I was grateful that Bonnie hadn't started her grand descent yet because I had to run back up the stairs. It got _way_ too much attention on me, but seriously, I had to fix this quickly before I made us even more late than we were already going to be.

The lipstick just on top of my makeup box was the stuff I had bought for Valentine's Day, and that was the stuff that I had put on. It was apparent when a crimson lip print was left on Kol's cheek, with ease.

Finding the appropriate lipstick, the one I had bought just to wear with this dress without even thinking about the fact that the other stuff was the same crimson color, I quickly wiped off the easy to remove lipstick and put on the stuff meant to last through anything.

I wet the end of one of the rags in the linen closet and hurried back downstairs. By the time I was back, the main event of showing everyone off was finished, and everyone was in their jackets waiting on me.

I tried to ignore the way Kol's smoldering gaze burned through me, but he knew exactly what that was. Maybe it was the reason the dress was getting to him the way that it was. He could remember the last time I wore crimson.

Caroline laughed a bit as I began using the wet end of the rag to wipe the lipstick off Kol's cheek. "Why would you even buy lipstick that comes off that easily?"

I paused a moment, and my face scrunched. Kol's eyes were absolutely shining at this point, both arrogantly and with his insatiable desires, but he didn't say anything, only let me try and figure out what to say.

"Um, it was an accident?"

Rebekah groaned. "Gross."

"We should really stop questioning anything she does," Bonnie spoke up, mostly in agreement with what Rebekah had said—I guess it wasn't hard to figure out. "We probably don't want the actual answer to it."

Even though there were some who clearly didn't wanna think about all of that, it made most of the people in the room laugh or smile anyways. After cleaning Kol's face completely, it was time to go to prom.

Caroline had come back to Mystic Falls with a planning vengeance. Sometimes, I wondered if she was trying to distract herself, but that was also just the way she was. There was a head of the prom committee in her absence, but with her back, she was able to take over again and make prom everything she had once dreamed.

I had no idea how beautiful it was going to be. It was the elegant masterpiece Caroline had always talked about, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and twinkling lights cascading down like stars. It was worth coming just to see the way she lit up at the sight of it all, at the sight of everyone enjoying themselves in the way she always dreamed.

I noticed Rebekah sneaking over to the table where votes for prom king and queen were being placed, and it wasn't hard to figure out what she intended. With the newly crowned Miss Mystic Falls tallying the votes, how easy would it have been for Rebekah to rig it with a bit of mind compulsion?

Somehow, I managed to talk her out of it by reminding her that the crown wasn't all that pretty, that if she wanted a crown that didn't mean anything, she could buy a much more beautiful one easily.

She joked that she had stolen one from a queen in Spain centuries ago, and she left it at that. I spent time trying to picture how marvelous that crown must've been, but I couldn't focus on it long, not when Kol so casually brought me over to the dance floor.

The last dance we had gotten to share with one another had been a tragic one, very bittersweet. It was the night of the ball, the night I ran away, but that wasn't going to happen again. I was never going anywhere, and tonight . . . our dance was magical.

Time felt like it was flying by, with dancing turning into mingling—catching up with people I didn't really like all that much, as if they had missed me while I was away—but before I knew it, it was time to announce the prom king and queen.

I had never been more grateful to hear Bonnie and Matt's names called, and I was so happy for them both. It was only fitting that Matt completely fit your stereotypical high school quarterback, prom king and all, and he deserved that kind of happiness, that kind of support and love.

Bonnie shone like she was a fallen star, and we all cheered loudly for her, even Rebekah.

She was still her sassy, bitchy self when she needed to be, but Rebekah Mikaelson had made real friends. She looked happier than I had seen her in a long time, marveling in the beauty of her first high school dance and her first experience with real friends.

I couldn't imagine how lonely her life had been before, but like with Kol, I was grateful that it never had to be again.

Just as Matt and Bonnie went out to the dance floor, to share the traditional dance, I felt my hand being pulled backwards. I didn't have to look back to know that it was Kol, but I did anyways.

His features were soft, but the smile was dazzling, in the best of ways. He didn't have to say anything for me to know what he was doing, what he was trying to say without saying, so as Matt and Bonnie began to share their dance, I followed him outside.

Kol wrapped his arms around my waist, and he pulled me closer to him, close enough that I could feel his warmth, could smell the chocolate mint scent in such an overpowering way that I forgot how to stand on my own.

The song was reaching its first chorus, and it was a song I recognized well—one even Kol seemed to recognize. Maybe it was the reason he had pulled me outside, to give us a chance to dance to such a perfect and fitting song.

As my arms snaked around his waist, as the two of us began to move together so perfectly, I found my eyes locked in his. He was already watching me with an intense stare, the stare of a man looking at his most valued treasure, and I couldn't believe that was me.

"I swear to love you all my life." I knew I didn't have a voice as beautiful as Caroline's, but Kol seemed to love it when I sang to him anyways. "Hold on, I still need you."

He stopped dancing with me, only so his hands could grab onto my face in the most delicate way. "In all of my years, I have never seen anything more beautiful than you."

"Is that why you want to marry me?"

His smile grew ten sizes, wider than I knew it could, and he let his hands fall by my side, to hold onto my waist as if we were still dancing. I guess we hadn't really even started dancing, just stepped out to take the moment alone we had while we could still get it.

"One of the infinite reasons, my love," he breathed. "I will admit. I'm curious about how it went exactly. I know that everyone seemed rather excited, and no one looked at me as if I was a demon spawn."

"Is that what Damon did?"

He laughed. "For a few minutes. Jeremy was quite pleased, and of course Elijah was elated. He insisted there was nothing more fitting, but Damon was angry. He thought we were bloody mad, but I decided that since you care about him, I may as well try and calm him down about it all."

My brow scrunched. "What do you mean?"

"I just explained to him why I wanted to marry you, why it was something we decided to do now," he murmured. "Apparently what I said was sufficient enough reason because he gave me his blessing, although I didn't exactly ask for it."

"Whether you like him or not, he's my brother," I reminded him. "If he wasn't on board with it, I would still do it, but I'd be sad about it."

Hearing that I would still marry him, that I wasn't going to let their opinions on the matter change the decision, brought a smile back to his face, in the warm depths of his eyes. "Every time I look at you, Darcy Gilbert, all I see is the woman who will be by my side for eternity, the woman who I will spend every moment of my life learning about, exploring, and finding more and more reasons to fall in love all over again. I promise to only call you my wife once I make that true, however, and I will, whenever you would like."

This was the first time anything about an actual date was said. Obviously we weren't setting the date in this very moment, but it was the first conversation that might lead in that direction.

I could feel the muscles of my cheeks pulling apart, in a way that might sting if I wasn't a vampire with fast healing. "I want the twins to be able to walk first."

"Naturally."

"And I wanna figure out this shit in New Orleans," I said, even if I hated the idea of bring the mood down. "I don't wanna be in the middle of wedding planning, have a date set, and then shit just hit the fan, you know?"

"Of course." He moved his hands back to my face, to hold onto me as if I were a fragile flower. It had annoyed me when I first turned, but over time, it became endearing again, to realize that no matter how durable I was, I would always be delicate and worth handling with care to him. "We will take care of everything, but first? Forget all of it. For the time, we're safe. No one is out to hurt our children. They're safely protected inside a home where no vampires can get inside."

My lips rubbed together, to stifle back a laugh. "I'm surprised you were okay with the Sherriff watching them alone."

"You don't think Elijah is there with her?" he asked, and his eyebrows rose. "We told him it wasn't necessary, but I can almost guarantee he's there. Probably Shea and Sutton as well."

Though it was comforting to know they were safe, I had hoped the Sherriff would get her night alone with them. She would never know grandchildren, but as far as she was concerned, Elena, Bonnie, and I were like her daughters. The twins would be the closest she would ever come, and she absolutely adored them.

There had been some opposed to telling her about the twins, but things weren't so dangerous that she couldn't know. Same with Matt. I trusted her to keep it a secret no matter what.

I let out a soft sigh and laid my head against his chest, and his arms moved to wrap around me fully, to pull me into a hug that I could spend eternity in.

It was much shorter than I would've liked to stand there, but when his lips moved down to find mine, I didn't mind so much. Intimately being with one another, even beyond sex, was something I could enjoy forever. Kol had been without it for so long, and I had never experienced this kind of intimacy with other people before either.

Maybe that was why we treasured it so much, because it was something new for us both. It had become less _new_ , but the appeal was still there. It would always be there.

I knew that no matter what happened, at the end of the day, I could always come home to his warm embrace, to his arms around me and fighting off every piece of bad in the world.

The kiss was meant to be gentle, to fit the mood, but I wasn't having that. I managed to slip my arms out of his, only so I could grab onto his face, and before I knew it, he was fired up all over again. Though he held himself back, used a lot of restraint to continue appearing as if he was simply holding me, I could feel his muscles relaxing into me, feel his body preparing for something much hotter, something with far less clothes than we wore now.

I ripped myself away from his lips. "Let's go home."

Though his lips curled into a smirk, his eyebrows rose. I didn't imagine he liked the idea of protesting, but he was going to at least make sure that I was certain before we just let our lust consume us and make us do things we might regret in the grand scheme of things.

We came to prom. It was beautiful, and I was happy that Bonnie got prom queen. It wasn't really my thing, the social gathering of it all, so I was ready to go back home, back to the privacy of our room where I could be free and naked and in the best paradise the world had to offer.

"Wasn't there some after party we were supposed to go to?"

"Yeah, but forget that." I wrapped my arms around his neck and crushed him into me, and I felt his breath hitch inside of his chest. "Let's have our own private after party. Remember? The house is empty for now."

That wasn't something I think Kol was ever going to protest. Most of the couples had driven separately, with people leaving at different times and going to separate places after it was all over, but there had been an agreement that we'd have an after party at the Mikaelson's place. It was the biggest, and locking the doors to the nursery and basement was easy enough to do.

We only had limited time before people arrived, before we would pretty much have to join the after party anyways, and Kol wasn't going to waste a second of it.

Somehow, in the midst of everything going on around us, I was lucky enough to call this my life. I was a mom to twins at eighteen, and I found myself engaged to the father after meeting him in October . . . and it was the end of March.

Time was infinite for us, and it was something that didn't really matter in the grand scheme of it all. No matter how crazy it seemed, it was real, and it was the best decision I could've ever made for myself.

I absolutely couldn't wait to become Mrs. Kol Mikaelson, to have the same last name as the love of my eternal life and my children.

* * *

 **A/N: So this is the end of You and Me. :)**

 **Those are actually lyrics from the song _This Is the End_ by The Maine. Whatever, that wasn't where I was going with that.**

 **I wasn't going to post this for a few more days, because I was losing traction on the sequel to this part, which is called Spell It Out (if you didn't remember.) I was going to wait to post this because I wanted to post the prologue of Spell It Out when I posted this, and I wanted to have at least 10 chapters up.**

 **I got a review, however, and reviews and feedback of any kind mean so much to me. They inspire me so much, so here I am, posting the end of this one and the beginning of the next. :)**

 **I'm going to keep this going. I won't stop, BUT I have been thinking that if I'm going to do everything I want with their time in New Orleans, it might take two more parts. Spell It Out might not be the end after all. I'll see how it goes later on because I definitely don't wanna drag this out more than I should, but I'm just letting you guys know where I'm thinking with this.**

 **Seriously, though. Reviews make my day. You guys are awesome. This story has, by far, been my most successful yet, and I absolutely adore Darcy and Kol. I'm working on another Kol/OC fanfiction as well, and I sometimes write Darcy instead because I just love them so much.**

 **I'll stop rambling and let you get on to part three! If you're reading this, I've already posted Spell It Out, so go right ahead and go to my profile and check out the prologue.**

 **Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!**


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